THE LIBRARY
OF
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES
i1-
SOUTH AFRICA
B'F P HIT wX LAND " '
C R L A T
\ IROTFOTORATE T
; N*--!!** land! "'""«" ^^« 'J^ v* s"«. .
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SOUTH AFRICA
A STUDY IN COLONIAL ADMINISTRATION AND
DEVELOPMENT.
BY
W. BASIL WORSFOLD, M.A.
OF UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, OXFORD ; AND OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE,
BARRISTER-AT-LA\V
SECOND EDITION, REVISED
METHUEN & CO.
36 ESSEX STREET, W.C.
LONDON
1897
PREFACE.
In these pages I have endeavoured to set out in a
connected form the most important features in the past
history and present circumstances of South Africa.
Additional information, with extracts from authorities
somewhat difficult of access, is contained in the Notes ; and
I have added a Historical Summary, a Statistical Appendix,
and the Text of the Convention of London, This latter
is given because of its importance (as governing to a
large extent the present relationships of England to the
Transvaal), and also because the Blue-book which contains
it is, I understand, out of print.
I should perhaps say that I have been able to bring
information acquired during a residence of nearly two years
in the Cape Colony and Natal to bear upon the treatment
of this subject.
W. B. W.
Lamb Building,
/uue loth, 1895.
n
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
The rapid march of events in South Africa has made it
necessary to increase the original contents of this book by
two additional chapters, which deal respectively with the
recent disturbances in the Transvaal and the insurrection
of the natives under the administration of the Chartered
Company.
In connection with these chapters I desire to acknow-
ledge my indebtedness to Mr Henry Hess for his courtesy
in permitting me to embody in the text some remarks on
the Jameson case and other comments taken from articles
which I had contributed to the African Critic.
At the same time I have taken the opportunity afforded
by the issue of a fresh edition to bring the information
contained in the original chapters down to the present
date.
I have also added three notes, which refer respectively
to the Transvaal Legislation of 1896, the population of
Johannesburg, and the Rinderpest.
W. B. W.
Lamb Building, Temim.k, E.G.,
Deccviber yh, 1896.
Page
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
Early History.
Variety of political and social conditions of South Africa makes
its history specially instructive — Connection of South-east
Africa with trading nations of antiquity — The discovery of the
maritime route to India causes the Cape to be used as a half-
way-house by the Portuguese, English, and Dutch traders —
A station established in 1652 by the Dutch East India
Company — The station becomes a settlement — Huguenot
emigration — Relations of the Company to the natives, and to
the Franco-Dutch settlers — Review of the period of the
Company's government ..... I
CHAPTER II.
The Kafir Wars.
Early British Government. Introduction of English element by
Albany Settlement — The expansion of the Cape Colony
becomes a record of conflicts between the %vhite settlers and
the Kafirs, i.e. military Bantu — Emancipation of coloured
races within the colony — Colonial frontier policy reversed by
Lord Glenelg — Emigration of large section of Franco-Dutch
population — The cost of the Kafir wars determines the
British Government to allow the dismemberment of the
white communities, and to withdraw from the administra-
tion of native territories outside the limits of the Cape
Colony and Natal — Independence of emigrant farmers in the
Transvaal (1852), and in the Orange River Sovereignty
(1854), recognised — Grant of Representative Government to
the Cape Colony — General progress of the Colony . , 25
CHAPTER III.
Sir Bartle Frere and Federation.
Sir George Grey — Kafir Policy — German immigration — His
condemnation of dismemberment of South Africa, and pro-
posals for the introduction of a Federal system — The dis-
viii CONTENTS
covery of diamonds causes the reversal of the policy of non-
intervention— Resumption of British authority over Griqua-
land West (Kimberiey district) in 1871 — Dissatisfaction of
the Free State — Lord Carnarvon's proposal for reuniting
the white states in a federal system similar to that of the
Canadian Dominion — Mr Froude's mission — The annexation
of the Transvaal in April 1877 — Sir Bartle Frere appointed
to give effect to Lord Carnarvon's policy in 1877. Wide-
spread movement of revolt among the Bantu peoples —
The subjugation of the natives becomes a condition precedent
to the re-union of the white communities — The revolt of
the Kafirs under Kreli crushed— Ketshwayo's " fighting
machine " broken up by the Zulu war — Reduction of
Sikukuni — Settlement of Zululand by Wolseley — Movement
among the Transvaal burghers for the restoration of their
independence — Sympathy with them in England and in
the Cape Colony — The Federation proposals of the Cape
ministry abandoned — Recall of Sir Bartle Frere — Review
of his administration (1877-80) . ... 43
CHAPTER IV.
The Boers.
Transvaal Revolt — History of the Boers — Their services to South
Africa — Defeat of Moselekatse and Dingan — Relations be-
tween the emigrant farmers and the Imperial Government —
Transvaal Revolt, 1880-81 — Attitude of the Free State ; of
the Africander party at the Cape — Services of Sir Evelyn
Wood — Retrocession of Transvaal can only be justified on
grounds of political expediency — Position of the Boers in
South Africa ...... 61
CHAPTER V.
Natal and the Kafir Problem.
Constitution of Natal a separate colony in 1848 — European
emigration — Physical characteristics of the countr)' —
Carrying trade — Sugar Industry — Indian labour imported
for the plantations — Development of Coal Mines — Grant
of Responsible Government in 1893 — Smallness of white
population (one in ten) — System of native administration
— Rapid increase of Kafir population — Question of the
growth of the Bantu population in South Africa — The
wider question of the ultimate numerical relationship
between the white and coloured races of the world raised
CONTENTS ix
PACK
in Pearson's " National Life and Character * — Native
education in the Cape Colony and its results — Mr
Pearson's " Forecast " ..... 79
CHAPTER VI.
The Bechuanaland Settlement.
The Hottentots and Bushmen (yellow-skinned) are practically
extrnct, but the various branches of the Bantu (dark-skinned)
race thrive in South Africa — Comparison of military and
industrial Bantu — Basutoland : ability displayed by Moshesh
— Bechuanaland : the scene of the labours of Moffat and
Livingstone — The trade route to Central Africa — Western
Border of Transvaal not delimited until 1884 — Claim of
Boers to Sovereignty over Bechuanas — In 1884 Imperial
Government determine to assume control of northward
expansion of the white settlers — In defiance of British Pro-
tectorate Transvaal freebooters effect settlements in 1884 —
Importance of maintaining the trade route to the interior
recognised — Change of opinion in the Cape Colony —
Bechuanaland expedition under Warren — Restoration of
British prestige in South Africa — The Bechuanaland settle-
ment is the turning point in British Administration of
South Africa ...... 99
CHAPTER VII.
Agricultural and Pastoral Resources.
Sea-borne trade of England — Deficiency of South Africa in grain,
cattle and sheep as compared with other new Anglo-Saxon
countries — Situation and characteristics of chief agricultura
and pastoral districts — Special industries, ostrich farming,
angora goat, and wine farming — Deficiency due to uncertain
rainfall, and unprogressiveness of Boer — Evidence of
travellers unanimous — Man, not nature, at fault — Efforts of
Colonial Government — Agricultural department created, and
means for (scientific) agricultural education provided through-
out the Colony — System of land tenure in British colonies
generally, and in the Cape Colony — New countries must
not be judged by the same tests as old countries . . 117
CHAPTER VIII.
The Diamond Mines (Kimberley).
Accounts of the discovery of diamonds — Rush to the Vaal in
1870 — Kimberley mine opened, July 21, 1871— Small extent
of diamondiferous area — Geology of diamond mines : pro-
b
CONTENTS
bably volcanic funnels filled with mud— Origin of diamonds
a mystery. Difticullies and discomforts of early miners —
Formation of "Mining Board" in 1874— Old system:
ownership by claim and surface working — Claims gradually
converted into companies as difficulty of working increases
— Reef {i.e. sides of workings) falls in— Crisis in 1883 —
The problem of sinking shafts for subterranean working
solved — Amalgamation of companies : until, in 1888, the
De Beers Consolidated Mines practically absorbs the whole
industry — Regulation of output and economy of working
secured — Description of mines : methods of extracting
diamonds from soil raised from mines ; housing and pay-
ment of European employes ; absolute control of natives
— Town of Kimberley— Special legislation and extraordinary
precautions to prevent the illicit sale of diamonds in the
Cape Colony — The story of the diamond industry a remark-
able record of commercial enterprise . . . 136
CHAPTER IX.
Gold-mining.
Distribution of minerals throughout South Africa — Iron :
Copper : Silver : Coal : Gold — History of gold-mining in
the Transvaal — Original discovery discountenanced by Gov-
ernment on political grounds — Gold laws — Gold-mining
commenced at Leydenburg in 1873; at De Kaap fields in
18S2 ; at Witwatersrandt in 18S6 — Foundation of Johannes-
burg in 1886-87, now a town of 70,000 inhabitants — De-
scription of the Randt basin — Estimates of the extent of
the auriferous deposits — Comparison and review of gold
out-put of North America, Australia, and South Africa — The
world's out-put, 1 700- 1 894 — Effect of increased gold product
u]X)n commerce of the world .... 152
CHAPTER X.
Conflict of Nationalities and Races.
O'.it of three (main) elements, Bantu, Dutch and English, are
fumed a variety of governments differently related to the
Imjierial Government and to each other — An inquiry into
the comparative failure of British administration — Diver-
gences of opinion between the Imperial and Colonial Govern-
ments— More fatal than special difficulties — Nationality
difficulty and native question — Examples of disagreement
between "the man in Downing Street" and "the man
on the spot " — England never assumed the role of para-
CONTENTS xi
PAGE
mount power until 1884 — In 1884-85 (Bechuanaland) the
Imperial Government avoided the mistake of 1854, and
determined to control the northward expansion of the whites
— Extension of this policy to Mashonaland in 1889— The
factor of race is becoming gradually less important — Partial
union of parties effected by Mr Rhodes — Amalgamation
of the Dutch and English races is being brought about by
the spread of education and extension of railway com-
munication— Question of slavery lay at the root of the
separation of the Europeans in South Africa — Treatment of
natives is still most formidable barrier to reunion— Mr
Rhodes deals with the Bantu problem by the Glen Grey Act
— The Africander race ..... 166
CHAPTER XI.
South African Literature.
Colonial literature ; in what sense it can be distinguished as
such ; birth of the author in a colony not a sufficient test ;
knowledge of special locality and of local character not
enough ; the characteristic quality is the reproduction of the
spirit, and not the letter, of colonial life — This "feeling"
gives a special value to the poetry of Adam Lindsay Gordon
and Rudyard Kipling ; to the prose-fiction of Browne (Rolf
Boldrewood), and Olive Schreiner — Thomas Pringle is a
South African poet, he portrays characteristic incidents in
the life of the natives and settlers ; his inspiration comes
from the desert and the wild uplands of the Eastern frontier
— Olive Schreiner : her youth — The " Story of an African
Farm " is a book of " thought " ; Part i. is a study of
child-life in a South African setting ; Part ii. an essay on
woman's rights. The book is redolent of the Karoo, its
incompleteness, its strange gaps, faithfully reflect the
physical and moral conditions under which it was written
— It is valuable to the student as a picture of typical South
African life and of Boer character — Estimate of its literary
merit — Political essay- writing at the Cape . . . 186
CHAPTER XH.
The Chartered Company and Mr Cecil Rhodes.
Mashonaland identified by Mr Theodore Bent with the land of
Ophir — Zimbabwe ruins — Victoria Falls on Zambesi— Con-
quest of Mashonaland by the Matabele Zulus and devasta-
tion of country— Extension of British sphere to the Zambesi
xn CONTENTS
PAGE
(1885) — Concession granted by Lobengula for exploring
and prospecting (1888) — Charter granted to British South
Africa Company (1889) — The Occupation of Mashonaland
by the Company — The Pioneer expedition, conducted by
Selous, reaches Salisbury, Sept. 12, 1890— Colquhoun
administrator, 1890-91 ; Jameson, 1891 — Anglo-Portuguese
Convention (1891) opens east coast — Lobengula attacks
Maslionas in Victoria — Matabele war, 1893 — Extension of
railway and telegraph systems northward — Development of
Mashonaland plateau — Growth of Buluwayo— Commercial
basis of Charterland — Shareholders' profits from minerals
only — Mr Rhodes' "Patent" — Prospects of gold-mining —
Buluwayo in Autumn 1895 .... 204
CHAPTER XIII.
The Revolt of the Uitlanders.
Terms of Transvaal Independence in 1881 — Alteration of posi-
tion of British population by successive enactments of the
Raad — The admitted grievances of the Uitlanders — Lord
Loch's action in 1894 — Dr Jameson's incursion — Mr
Chamberlain's action — Lord Rosmead (Sir H. Robinson) at
Pretoria — Position of Mr Rhodes — Trial of Reformers at
Pretoria — of Dr Jameson in London — Responsibility for the
Raid ....... 223
CHAPTER XIV.
The Insurrection of the Natives in Rhodesia.
Immediate changes in the Chartered Company consequent upon
the Raid — South Africa Committee — Causes of Native In-
surrection— Action of local government and settlers —
Measures taken by High Commissioner and Imperial
Government to relieve whites — Colonel Plumer's force —
General Carrington appointed to command — Course of
military operations — Shooting of M'Limo — Mr Rhodes's
Indaba — Reforms proposed by Chartered Company — The
future of Rhodesia ...... 245
Notes ........ 265
Historical Summary ..... 291
Statistical Api-endix ..... 295
Text of Convention of London .... 300
CHAPTER I
The Early History and Occupation by the
Dutch East India Company.
TN one of those reflections which delight us by their
"•■ simplicity and astonish us by their profundity, Pascal
remarks that the first object of a man's study is his own
person, that is to say, that portion of matter which is
immediately under his own control. But he adds that a
man can never attain to a full knowledge of himself until
he has mastered the science of the universe. And the
same thought occurs in a somewhat different form in that
defiant line in the opening stanza of Mr Rudyard Kipling's
ballad of " The English Flag "—
'* And what should they know of England, who only England know?"
Somewhat on this principle I am going to commence the
study of South Africa by a review of the leading charac-
teristics of the other three great provinces of the Empire
— Australasia, Canada, and India; and by a comparison
of South Africa with these provinces.
South Africa — which means for us Africa south of the
Zambesi, omitting the German territory on the west, and
the Portuguese territory on the east, coasts — has an area
(in round numbers) of one and a quarter million square
miles, and a population of four millions. It resembles
Australia to some extent in physical characteristics, for in
both countries there are central and western desert lands,
A
2 SOUTH AFRICA
and mountainous and more fertile eastern and southern
littorals. In both countries the land requires to be irri-
gated and fertilised, and the task of turning the desert into
the garden is the primary labour which engrosses the
inhabitants of both alike. The area of Australasia — that
is, Australia and New Zealand — is more than twice as large
as that of South Africa, but its population is the same —
four millions. There is a circumstance, however, which
makes the character of these two provinces of the Empire
entirely different : whereas the population of South Africa
is composed of Europeans and natives in the proportion of
one to seven or eight, the four million people of Australasia
are almost exclusively of Anglo-Saxon origin.
The area of Canada, or British North America, is nearly
three times as extensive as that of South Africa ; and its
population, which is composed almost entirely of persons
of European origin, is five millions. In physical character-
istics the two countries are absolutely diverse. Canada is
well supplied with navigable rivers and inlets of the sea.
South Africa is peculiarly deficient in this respect. In the
" barren ground " of Northern Canada is the haunt of the
musk-ox ; the Kalihari desert is the home of the lion.
But there is a point of resemblance between Canada and
South Africa. In both countries the European population
is divided into two sections. In Canada there are a
million and a half French people and three and a half
millions of English ; and in South Africa the Dutch
population exceeds the English in the proportion of five
to four. In both countries, therefore, there is the
" nationality " difficulty, the difiiculty of making two
diverse peoples pull together in the work of civilisation.
Lastly there is India. The area of the two countries *
is much the same, but their respective physical character-
istics are absolutely unlike. With its deficient rainfall and
its useless rivers, South Africa grows barely enough food
* Including Burmah in the area of " India."
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION 3
for its small population, but India is a very garden for
fertility, and supports a population of little less than three
hundred millions. But here, again, there is a point of
contact. In both India and South Africa the basis of
the population is formed by the native races. In certain
districts of South Africa there is an overwhelming majority
of dark-skinned people, and in these districts the social and
political conditions are those of India. That is to say,
the coloured races are controlled and administered by
the handful of Europeans resident among them.
From the political point of view. South Africa exhibits
a bewildering variety. Unlike Canada, the several states
are not yet united under a Central Government ; unlike
Australia, these states are by no means equally advanced
in the path of civilisation. The two colonies, the Cape
of Good Hope (with which Southern Bechuanaland is now
incorporated) and Natal, enjoy the freedom of " responsible
government." The Free State and the South African Re-
public, or the Transvaal, are two Dutch Republics pos-
sessing full internal freedom. Of the native territories,
some are administered by Imperial, and some by colonial
officers. Finally, there is the British South Africa Company,
which exercises a civil administration over territories as
extensive as the combined areas of France, Germany,
Italy, and Austria. In certain territories the " regulations " *
of the Company's Administrator have the force of law by
virtue of their Charter and subsequent Agreements with
the Imperial Government.
But if the political conditions of South Africa are
characterised by variety, an equally well-marked note of
uniformity runs through its physical features. Great
ranges of mountains run down the eastern coast, along
the southern coast, and more brokenly up the western
coast, at varying distances from the coast-line which
they thus approximately follow. Behind these barrier
* Clause 10, Agreement ot May 1894.
4 SOUTH AFRICA
ranges are high plateaux declining into the western
and central deserts ; between the ranges and the sea the
land falls rapidly either in terraces, or in a succession
of lesser ranges, or in both. There are two facts then
which the briefest survey of the physical characteristics
of South Africa reveals. In the first place, owing to the
great elevation of the central regions, the climate improves
as we advance from the coast inland ; and, in the second,
the spasmodic character of the rainfall (due in part to
the disposition of the great mountain ranges), acting in
combination with the rapid fall of the land from the
high plateaux or mountain ranges to the coast, renders
the rivers of South Africa singularly inefficient for purposes
both of irrigation and of navigation.
The history of South Africa does not begin with the
station which Van Riebeck planted in 1652, in the south-
western corner of the Continent, but on the low-lying land
of the south-east coast. It is unnecessary to recapitulate
the interesting chain of evidence by which the identity
of Mashonaland with the " Ophir " of antiquity is practic-
ally established by Mr Theodore Bent. It is sufficient
to know the result of this evidence as it is summed up
in a single sentence by the explorer.*
" Here, near the east coast of Africa, far nearer to
Arabia than India and China and other places, which
they were accustomed to visit, not only is there evidence
of the extensive production of gold, but also evidence of
a cult, known to Arabia and Phoenicia alike, temples
built on accurate mathematical principles, containing
kindred objects of art, methods of producing gold known
only to have been employed in the ancient world, and
evidence of a vast population devoted to the mining of
gold."
This, then, was the most fruitful source from which
was drawn that supply of the precious metals with which
• " Ruined Cities of Mashonaland," pp. 193-4.
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION 5
Phoenicia was enriched at the period when Zechariah
said of her principal city, " Tyre heaped up silver as the
dust, and fine gold as the mire of the streets." Here,
too, was the storehouse of that profusion of wealth of
which Horace spoke when he taunted the Roman
miUionaire with the thought that " the undivided pos-
session of all the treasures of Arabia and the sumptuous
Orient "* could not ease the heart of the dread of death.
And now a difificulty arises. How was it that the
inquisitive Greek and the ubiquitous Roman remained
in ignorance of the region from which their supplies of
this precious metal came? Because, says Mr Theodore
Bent, it was part of the recognised policy of the Semitic
nations to rigorously conceal the knowledge of their
trading routes — whether those routes led westward beyond
the pillars of Hercules to the White Island of the Atlantic,
or eastward to India, China, and the east coast of Africa.
The secret was kept so well that it was not until the end
of the fifteenth century that the nations of Europe were
brought into direct trading connection with the East.
At this period the Mohammedans had succeeded the
Phoenicians as the commercial intermediaries between
the East and West, and in order to understand the
political significance of the discovery of the maritime
route to India, we must regard that discovery as part
of the great political duel between the East and the
West which runs through the whole course of history.
In that duel the chief antagonists were Greece and
Persia, Rome and Parthia, Christendom and Islam. The
merit of opening up the maritime route to the East
belongs to the Infante Henry of Portugal. This prince,
it is pleasant for Englishmen to reflect, was very closely
connected with our own royal family. His mother was
Philippa of Lancaster; Henry IV. was his uncle, and
* " Intactis opulentior
Thesauris Arabum et divitis Indiae." — ' Odes,' III. 24.
6 SOUTH AFRICA
Henry V., the conqueror of Agincourt, his cousin. In
his youth he was engaged in the wars with the Moors in
Africa ; and, as a result of this experience, he appears
to have added a passion for geographical research to
the enmity which he inherited against that people. He
founded a naval college and an observatory, and, in
spite of failures and discouragements, sent out a succession
of navigators to explore the western coast of Africa
and find an ocean pathway to the East. In fact,
he seems to have grasped this central fact — that, so
long as the trade of Europe with the East remained
in the hands of the Mohammedans, the merchants of
Europe were undoing the work of her captains and men-
at-arms. For although the Moors had been driven from
the Iberian Peninsula, the Turks were securely seated
at Constantinople, and threatened to advance into the
heart of Europe : and it was the profits of a world-wide
trade which supplied the treasure by which this for-
midable military power was supported.
Henry the Navigator died in 1460. He died, therefore,
without seeing the fruition of his plans. In i486, in the
reign of John II. of Portugal — the brother of the Infante
Henry — Bartholomew Diaz, while engaged in this work of
exploring the western coast of Africa, was carried by a
storm to the southward. At first he steered in an easterly
direction, but when he failed to make the land, he altered
his course, and eventually struck the southern coast of the
continent at a point slightly westward of Cape Agulhas.
On his return to Portugal he proposed to name the
teirible promontory where he had been overtaken by the
storm, the " Cape of Tempests." But John, realising the
importance of the discovery, changed the name to one of
happier augury — the *' Cape of Good Hope." At the
same time the king sent to Cairo and to Aden, at that
time the centres of geographical knowledge, to collect
information respecting the routes to the East.
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION 7
Ten years later, in the reign of Emanuel the Fortunate,
Vasco da Gama started on his memorable voyage. He
left Portugal in July 1497, reached the Cape in November,
touched at Natal on Christmas Day, and finally presented
his credentials at Calicut, on the west coast of Hindostan,
early in the following year. Only six years previously
Columbus had discovered America in his endeavour to
achieve a similar purpose ; and so it happened that two
events so pregnant with change as the discovery of the
" new world " of America, and the establishment of direct
maritime communication between the western nations of
Europe and the East, were almost contemporaneous.
From this time onwards Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch,
EngUsh and French ships made the Cape of Good Hope,
or rather Table Bay, a port of call on the voyage to and
from the East ; but it was not until a hundred and fifty
years later that a permanent station was established there.
By this time the East India trade had to a large extent
fallen into the hands of the Dutch and English. It had
been organised by the establishment of two great trading
corporations, the Dutch and English East India Companies,
which were chartered almost simultaneously in the opening
years of the seventeenth century.
The event which immediately led to the foundation of
a naval station at the Cape by the Dutch East India
Company was the wreck of the Haarlem in Table Bay in
1648. The crew of the unfortunate East Indiaman re-
mained on the shore of Table Bay for five months before
they were carried back to Holland by the homeward bound
fleet. On their return, two of the shipwrecked crew,
Janssen and Proot, drew up a "remonstrance," which
they presented to the Chamber XVII. , the directory of
the Company. In this memorial they set out the
advantages which, in their opinion, would arise from
the establishment of a station there, and enlarged upon
the suitability of the place for this purpose. Ultimately
8 SOUTH AFRICA
the directors decided to carry out the proposal, and the
command of the expedition was given to Jan Antony van
Riebeck, a surgeon in the Company's service.
The scope of the Company's operations was exceedingly
limited. Their object was entirely practical, and excluded
any motives of political ambition, or religious or scientific
enthusiasm. Van Riebeck was instructed to erect a wooden
building for the accommodation of invalided sailors and
soldiers ; to construct a fort with accommodation for a
garrison of seventy or eighty men ; to form a garden where
vegetables could be grown — this was a matter of great im-
portance, for at that period scurvy was a terrible scourge ;
and to treat the natives kindly. He carried out with him
materials for the wooden building, and four iron culverins
to arm the fort : and he was further bidden to keep a diary
for the information of the directors. The expedition was
conveyed in three ships, the Drotnedary, the Heron, and
the sloop Good Hope, and it was composed exclusively of
persons in the civil or military employment of the Com-
pany, who, with a few female relatives, amounted to a total
of less than two hundred in all. Van Riebeck embarked
on the Dromedary on the i6th December 1651, and set
sail from the Texel on the 24th; and all three ships were
lying at anchor in Table Bay on the morning of Sunday,
the 7th April 1652.
The period of the Dutch occupation dates from the
arrival of Van Riebeck. At this time what is now the
Cape Colony was as much an uninhabited country as
Australia was a century ago. There was a fringe of
Hottentots and Bushmen inhabiting the western and
southern coast districts and the banks of the Orange
River, but that was all. This population, amounting to
a probable total of only 150,000 degraded and miserable
yellow-skinned people, were the aborigines of South Africa.
The dark-skinned race — the Bantu — a people far higher
in the scale of humanity — had as little claim to the title
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION 9
of " natives " as the Europeans ; but they had already
passed down the eastern coast between the Drakensberg
and the Indian Ocean, and penetrated southwards as far
as the Kei River. And so the southern extremity of the
continent came to be occupied almost contemporaneously
by the Europeans and the Bantu.
The station at Table Bay was a very small affair. As
a unit in the system of the Dutch East India Company
(Note i), it was simply a dependency of the third rank of
the Council of India, which sat at Batavia, in Java, then,
as now, the centre of the Dutch possessions in the East.
Van Riebeck was styled only a " Commander," and he
was liable to be superseded whenever an admiral or a
high official came into Table Bay. Some of the most
important of the early measures of the Cape Government
are due to the presence and action of these visiting
authorities. The Commander was assisted in the govern-
ment by a " Council of Policy." The first council was
formed by Van Riebeck, the sergeant, and the " book-
keeper " : but when it sat as a court of justice, the
constable of the fortress, and the two corporals, were
admitted to the board. The only religious functionary
was the " sick-comforter." Marriages were performed in
the presence of the Secretary of the Council, after the
banns had been published by the " sick-comforter."
For the first few years this handful of Europeans lived
the sort of life which is described in those imaginary
accounts of persons wrecked on uninhabited or savage
coasts so dear to our boyhood. A picture of almost
photographic exactness is presented to us in the " Diary "
which Van Riebeck was ordered to keep, and of which
a great part has been fortunately preserved.* Under the
date October 1652, we read that Herman Van Vogslaar
was convicted of "wishing the purser at the devil for
* " The Record," a collection of original documents made by Donald
Moodie, Lieut. R.N. : published at Capetown in 1838.
10 SOUTH AFRICA
serving out penguins instead of pork," and sentenced " to
receive one hundred blows from the butt-end of a musket."
On January ist, 1653, the first cabbage was cut. On the
15 th of the same month a gahot, or despatch boat,
arrived from Europe. Among the items of news which
she brought were accounts of the execution of Charles I.,
and of the declaration of war between the Commonwealth
and Holland. On Sunday, October 19th, David Janssen,
a herdsman, was assegaied to death during service-time by
the Hottentots, and the cattle under his charge were stolen.
On March 6th, 1854, a dead " basmanneken," or baboon,
was found and eaten. The animal is described as being
"as large as a small calf," and was evidently regarded as
a welcome accession to the larder. On the 6th of April,
the second anniversary of the foundation of the settlement
was celebrated. " Owing to scarcity of bread and meat,"
it was impossible for the little community to have a feast ;
but, " we abstained from labour," the diary says, " and
listened to a long sermon, and thus made the most we
could of the occasion." June 29th, 1656, was observed
as "a day of prayer and humiliation." The community
were reproved for their carelessness shown in the omission
of prayer before partaking of food ; and the Council
ordered that the neglect of this religious duty should be
punished by a fine amounting to is. for the first offence,
and 2s. for the second, beside " arbitrary correction "
Five years after the arrival of the expedition, a step was
taken by the Directors which changed the establishment
at the Cape from a mere naval station to a permanent
European settlement. At this time the residents in and
around the fort on the shores of Table Bay amounted to
134 white persons and a few slaves. In April 1657,
nine soldiers and sailors were discharged and established as
market-gardeners or farmers on the banks of the Liesbeck,
the small stream which traverses the Cape Peninsula, at
a place called then, as now, Rondebosch, and situated
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION ii
about three miles from the fort. They were allowed to occupy
holdings of twenty-six acres in extent, and they were provided
with tools and seeds from the Company's stores. They
were also exempted from taxation for a period of years.
In return for these benefits, the settlers, euphemistically
termed " free burghers," were required to bring their
produce to the Company's stores, and sell it at prices
fixed by the Company's officers. After the Company's
requirements had been satisfied, they were at liberty to
dispose of their surplus produce to the crews of foreign
ships in the Bay ; but they were not allowed to go on
board these ships until three days after arrival — that is to
say, until the Company had itself sold all that it desired to
sell. Similarly, in regard to cattle, they were compelled
to purchase from the Hottentots at the same prices as the
Company paid, and to sell only to the Company.
These arrangements are characteristic of the principles
and methods of colonisation pursued by the Dutch East
India Company during the whole period of their occupation
of the Cape. The colony was regarded merely as an estate
belonging to the Company, and the settlers as the agents
of the Company employed in the cultivation of this estate,
and entitled, therefore, to only such profits as were recog-
nised by the terms of their employment. Under the name
of the " Culture " system, these principles may be seen in
partial operation to-day in Java. Even in that country
the system has become discredited ; and it is one which
is wholly unsuited to a settlement of Europeans which is in
any sense a " colony " according to the modern acceptance
of the term.
This essay in colonisation was the occasion of the first
serious conflict between the Europeans and the Hottentots.
One of the migratory clans had been accustomed to resort
periodically to the banks of the Liesbeck for pasturage.
Access to these pastures was now hindered by the en-
closures of the settlers ; and, therefore, as a Hottentot
12 SOUTH AFRICA
prisoner, " who spoke tolerable Dutch," explained, the
" Caepmans " resolved to " dishearten " the settlers by
taking away their cattle (Note 2). The policy which the
Company had at first pursued towards the Hottentots was
one of " peace at any price." The cattle with which the
garrison and the Company's fleets were supplied came from
these nomad clans, and it was essential, therefore, that they
should not be frightened away by harsh treatment. After
the murder of David Janssen, Van Riebeck applied to the
directors for instructions. He was ordered to put to death
only the actual murderer or murderers of the dead man,
and to take in reprisal only the same amount of cattle as
had been stolen. These instructions were both humane
and politic, but it was impossible to carry them out. In
his reply Van Riebeck points out two fatal objections. In
the first place, he had no means of identifying the indivi-
dual evil-doers, and, in the second, private property was an
institution not yet established among these tribes. The
only way to punish the actual evil-doers under these cir-
cumstances was to punish the tribe en bloc; and he
proposed, therefore, to capture the whole tribe and all their
cattle. But the directors would not consent to this course,
and in the end nothing was done. In this incident we have
an excellent illustration of the respective attitudes of the
Home and Local Authorities in questions of native policy.
What the former proposes is nearly always just, and
generally sound in theory ; but it fails from a want of
knowledge of the special circumstances of the case. That
knowledge is possessed by the local authority, but he is
rarely allowed to adopt the course which the local con-
ditions require, because, without a knowledge of these con-
ditions, such a course naturally appears at variance with the
principles of conduct recognised by civilised peoples.
Van Riebeck first communicated the intelligence of the
Hottentots' attack upon the Liesbeck settlement to the
Indian Government. In a somewhat cool reply they
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION 13
advise him " to stand up stoutly to his own defence," and
at the same time authorise him provisionally to increase
the strength of the Cape garrison by drafts from passing
ships. The attack occurred in July 1659. Peace was
ultimately concluded at the Fort on April 6th, 1660,
between Van Riebeck and " the captain and chief of the
Caepmans " and various lesser personages. The Hottentots
made many complaints, and required that free access to the
pastures should be granted. In reply to the argument
that " there was not grass enough for their cattle and for
the settlers' cattle also," they enquired, " Have we then no
cause to prevent you from procuring any cattle ? for if you
get many cattle, you come and occupy our pasture with
them, and then say the land is not wide enough for us
both ! Who then can be required with the greatest degree
of justice to give way, the natural owner or the foreign
invader ? " Worsted in argument. Van Riebeck had, at last,
frankly asserted that he " would not restore the land, as it
had now become the property of the Company by the
sword and the laws of war." The whole of these negotia-
tions were fully recorded in the diary, and transmitted to
the directors.*
These latter admit that the " discontent " shown by the
Hottentots is " neither surprising nor groundless," and
suggest that the land should be purchased from them, or
that they should be otherwise satisfied.
For some reason or other this politic suggestion was not
carried out until twelve years later. Van Riebeck had
been removed at his own request after ten years' command
at the Cape, and his fidelity and capacity was rewarded by
the governorship of Malacca. He subsequently became
secretary to the Council of India, and his son, born at the
Cape, was Governor-General of India. Other lesser men
had followed him ; a strong castle — of which part is still
in existence — had replaced the original fort, and the
• The "Record," p. 205.
14 SOUTH AFRICA
settlement had grown in numbers and in importance, when
a high ofificial, Aernout Van Overbeke, arrived on his way
home from Batavia. Under his direction formal agree-
ments were concluded with two native chiefs, by which the
districts of the Cape and Hottentots Holland were respec-
tively ceded to the Company in return for certain "goods and
articles of merchandise." The actual value of the "tobacco,
beads, brandy, bread and other trifles," which constituted
the consideration in both cases, was extremely small — it
amounted in fact to little more than a hundred florins
" prime cost " — and on this account the transaction is
generally represented as a mere trick. It appears, however,
that at this time the directors made a serious endeavour to
legalise their de facto possession of the Cape Peninsula and
the districts beyond, by the purchase of territorial rights
from the native chiefs. In the first place, they persistently
pursued such a policy in Java, the centre of the operations
of the Company, where they ultimately acquired possession
of territorial rights over the whole island : next, although
the goods were trivial to the Dutch, they had a far higher
value to the Hottentot purchasers. What that value was
can only be seen by comparing this transaction with other
commercial dealings at the same period between the Dutch
and the Hottentots. Soon after Van Riebeck's arrival
" three elephants' teeth " were sold for some copper and
tobacco, worth two stivers and three pennings, or 2^d.; a
sheep for a yard of thin copper wire; and three young
ostriches for 2 oz. of tobacco. Obviously ten pounds
worth of goods would represent a large consideration on
such a scale as this. Moreover, the native chiefs did not
surrender entire possession of these territories ; they were
to be allowed to come with their herds to such districts as
were not occupied by the farms and cattle of the Com-
pany, or by those of the "freemen" (Note 3).
It may be asked, however, why the Company did not
continue this policy, and make further purchases of terri-
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION 15
torial rights ? The answer appears to be this. As the
Dutch advanced inland they found the country practically
uninhabited, and there was, therefore, no necessity to
acquire further deeds of cession. The inland districts were
traversed by nomad clans of Bushmen and Hottentots,
but these people, with their migratory habits, could estab-
lish no right of possession sufficient to bar the occupation
of the Europeans.
It was during the governorship of Simon Van der Stell
(the first official so styled), and that of his son Adrian,
covering a period of nearly twenty years, from 1679 to
1707, that the material foundations of the colony were
laid. Up to this time only a few persons had been in-
duced to leave Holland for the Cape: but in 1679 a
party of fifty emigrants arrived. A few years later a
town was founded thirty miles in the interior to which
the name of Stellenbosch was given ; and the first " land-
drost," or district magistrate, was appointed. In this
same year, 1685, an event happened in Europe which
was destined to have an important effect upon the fortunes
of the Cape Settlement, By the revocation of the Edict
of Nantes, the Huguenots were driven from France ; and
large numbers took refuge in England and Holland.
The Dutch East India Company offered to provide a
home for some of these French refugees at their new
settlement, and, during the years 1688-90, as many as
two hundred Huguenots arrived at the Cape (Note 4).
This was an important accession to the population of
the settlement, for these French settlers were not only
numerous — relatively, that is — but they were drawn from
classes higher in the social scale than the Dutch emigrants.
There were farmers, shop-keepers, and even members of
the French nobility among them,* and they were accom-
* Among the emigrants were members of the houses of Du Plessis,
De Mornay, Roubaix de la Fontaine, De Villiers, Le Sueur, Du
Pre, and Rousseau.
1 6 SOUTH AFRICA
panied by their pastor, Pierre Simond. A few were
settled on lands near Capetown and Stellenbosch, but
the majority found a home in the Berg River valley.
Van der Stell was instructed to take all necessary
measures for incorporating the French emigrants into
the community. The settlers of both nationalities were
carefully intermingled, and the French children were at
once taught the Dutch language. More than one attempt
was made by the French to preserve their identity, but
these " French impertinences " were vigorously restrained.
In 1709 the use of the French language in official com-
munications was forbidden, and in 1724 the Bible was
publicly read in French for the last time.
By these means the French element at the Cape was
absolutely absorbed into the Dutch. This policy was
undoubtedly harsh ; but if we look at the circumstances
of the settlement, we must admit that it was not only
justifiable but necessary. Twenty - five years after the
Huguenot emigration the whole population of the settle-
ment amounted to only some two thousand persons, of
whom nearly one-half were children. It would have
been obviously most disastrous to have allowed this small
community to be divided into two distinct sections,
speaking different languages, and having different customs
and modes of life.
The Company's administration of the Cape Settlement
from its foundation to the middle of the eighteenth
century appears to have been both just and politic.
We cannot reasonably complain either of the policy the
directors pursued towards the Hottentots or towards the
French emigrants. Moreover, there was as yet no mani-
festation of that harsh attitude towards the coloured races
which has since characterised the Franco-Dutch popula-
tion in South Africa. In the seventeenth century the
Dutch regarded the inferiority of the native races as
a question not of colour but of faith. A profession of
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION 17
Christianity placed the coloured person on the same
level as the European. In the instructions issued to
Van der Stell in 1685, by Commissioner H. A. Van
Rheede, directions are given for the training of the
slaves* in the Company's possession. These slaves were
mainly Asiatics brought from the Indian possessions of
the Company.
" The labour of the Company's slaves also [t.e. as well
as the free settlers previously discussed] produces much
profit, and holds out equal hopes for the future; but
these poor men must be looked upon with other eyes,
for they are the Company's own people, not hirelings ;
they cannot quit the service of their master when tired,
but are bound, not only for all their lives, but for those
of their children and descendants. The better we make
them, the fitter will they be to perform their duty. . . .
It would be a shame to us, whose part it is to take good
care of our irrational domestic cattle, if we permitted
men to run wild, and left them in a worse condition
than when in their fatherland. Our masters are the
foster-fathers of Christ's Church, and if we fail to
employ the means in our hands, and do not exert
every endeavour to bring these men to the knowledge of
the redeeming faith — we shut the doors of that Church."
And among the early marriages recorded in Van
Riebeck's diary is that of a Bengalese slave girl, Catharina,
to Jan Wonters. This girl had been set free and
baptised, and she is spoken of in precisely the same
terms "de eerbaare jonge dochter" as the Commander's
niece.
By the middle of the eighteenth century these humane
sentiments had become entirely lost. On September 3rd,
1754, a slave code of the utmost brutality was promulgated
from the Castle of Good Hope. By Article 2 of this Code
" death without mercy " was fixed as the penalty for " any
* "Record," p. 397.
B
1 8 SOUTH AFRICA
male or female slave raising his hand against his master
or mistress;" and by Article 23, every slave found at the
entrance of a Church, when the congregation was leaving
the building, was directed to be " severely flogged by the
ministers of justice." And for many years in the present
century, " Dogs and Hottentots not admitted " was the
usual notice placed over the church doors in South
Africa.
What is essential in the remaining history of the Com-
pany's Settlement can be soon told.
In 1700, the first barrier range was crossed at Tulbagh
Kloof, and the settlers spread southwards down the fertile
valley of the Breede River. In 1705 the Cape Govern-
ment issued " loan leases," or occupation licenses which
were resumable at any period, and in this uncertain tenure
of their farms and grazing lands we have the origin of
that nomadic manner of life which, under the form of
"trekking," has constituted an important factor in South
African history (Note 5).
In 1745, the eastern limit of the settlement was
advanced to the Gamtoos River, and a Magistracy was
established at Swellendam. During the year 1778, the
Governor, Van Plettenburg, made a tour of the colony,
and in the course of this tour he held a conference with
the Kosa chiefs at Prinslo's farm, on the site of Somerset
East. In this conference it was mutually agreed that the
Fish River should be recognised as the boundary between
the Europeans and the Bantu. The sequel is significant.
The very next year the Kosas crossed the Fish River,
murdered the Hottentots, and over-ran and plundered the
eastern farms. We find again and again in South African
history that an attempt on the part of the Europeans to
make a peaceable settlement with the Kafirs is the
prelude to a murderous attack. The reason is simple
enough. The Kafir is like a child, the only sanction
with which he is acquainted is the sanction of physical
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION 19
force. In all such cases he argues, "The white man
wishes to make peace with me, therefore the white man
is afraid of me. This, then, is the time for me to attack."
Finally, in 1786, the Fish River was formally declared to
be the eastern boundary of the Company's territory, and
a Magistracy was established at Graaf Reinet, among the
scattered graziers who had settled at the foot of the
Sneuwberg Mountains.
All this time the great trading corporation, the Dutch
East India Company, to which the settlement owed its
existence, was growing weaker and weaker, and by the
end of the century it had become hopelessly bankrupt
and effete. The attempt to reform its administration
made in 1791, when Commissioners-General were ap-
pointed by the Stadtholder (afterwards William I.) to
discover abuses and effect reforms, proved unsuccessful,
and shortly afterwards the States-General assumed the
direct control of its possessions. As regards the Cape,
the commercial basis upon which the Company's govern-
ment was built had become increasingly insufficient for
the expanding European population.
The condition of the settlers is revealed by the memorial
which they presented in 1779. In this memorial they
pray that the Fiscal, the highest law-officer of the Govern-
ment, may be restrained from arbitrarily committing
burghers to prison, and from compounding crimes by
private fines ; and that the practice of deportation to the
Indian factories may be prohibited. At this time, the
end of the eighteenth century it must be remembered,
it appears that no books, except the Bible and editions of
Clement Marot's version of the Psalms, were to be found
in the settlement outside of Capetown. It was respect-
fully prayed, therefore, that "authentic copies of the
particular placaats and ordinances " in force in the settle-
ment should be furnished from Holland ; or that a
printing press should be established and a printer ap-
20 SOUTH AFRICA
pointed. The rigour with which the Company's trading
monopoly had been maintained is demonstrated by
Article i8; in which the directors are humbly solicited
to allow the Cape Colonists ** that two ships may be laden
annually, for the account of the Cape citizens, with such
wares as shall be purchased by their appointed agents
— the burgher representatives binding themselves to send
back the said ships laden, for their account, with Cape
produce," which was to be " consigned to the Honourable
Company, to be sold by public auction in payment of the
imported goods."
This memorial was referred to the law officer of the
Cape Government, the Fiscal Boers. His reply is
extremely significant. The request for political freedom
is met by the broad denial of the right of the settlers to
place themselves on an equality with the "privileged free
citizens " of the United Provinces. " It would be a mere
waste of words," he says, "to dwell on the remarkable
distinction to be drawn between burghers whose ancestors
nobly fought for and conquered their freedom from
tyranny . . . and such as are named burghers here, who
have been permitted as matter of grace to have a residence
in a land of which possession has been taken by the
Sovereign Power, there to gain a livelihood as tillers of the
earth, tailors, and shoemakers." The prayer of the settlers
for commercial freedom, for the " rights of trading beyond
the colony, in ships freighted by them, to Europe, to
the African coast, to India, to barter the produce of other
lands for that of this country," is similarly met by a frank
statement of the theory of the old colonial system. " Now
it is clear, and requires no lengthy argument, that for the
purpose of enabling a subordinate colony to flourish as
a colony, it is not always expedient to apply these means
which, considered in the abstract, might be conducive to
its prosperity. The object of paramount importance in
legislating for colonics should be the welfare of the parent
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION 21
state, of which such colony is but a subordinate part, and
to which it owes its existence." *
It is not surprising, therefore, that when Commissary
Sluysken, on the i6th September 1795, capitulated to
Admiral Elphinstone and General Craig, the settlers at
Swellendam and Graaf Reinet were in open revolt against
the Company's government. The English occupation of
the Cape, which terminated the period of the Dutch East
India Company's government, arose out of the French
war. It was necessary to prevent a point of such strateg-
ical importance — forming a convenient base from which
India and the Indian trade could be attacked — from falling
into the hands of France. After the treaty of Amiens, by
which peace was concluded between France and England,
the Cape Settlement was restored to the Dutch ; and during
the short period (1803-6) that it was administered by the
representatives of the States-General every possible reform,
commercial and political, was introduced. Subsequently
on the renewal of the struggle between France and England,
the Cape was again occupied, in 1806, by an EngHsh force
under Sir David Baird. Since that time the English flag
has not ceased to fly over the Castle at Capetown.
By the end of the last century, when the period of the
government of the Dutch East India Company came to
a close, the south-western corner of the continent of Africa
was thinly peopled by a European population some twenty
thousand in number. Towns had been founded at Cape-
town, Stellenbosch, Swellendam and Graaf Reinet. In
the capital and its immediate neighbourhood the inhabi-
tants had attained some measure of material prosperity ;
that is to say, they were housed in substantial and comfort-
able dwellings, and had made some progress in agriculture
and viticulture. Elsewhere the settlers, living for the
* Verantwoording Van Fiscal Boers, as translated by Judge Water-
meyer in "Three Lectures on the Cape of Good Hope : " Capetown,
1857.
2 2 SOUTH AFRICA
most part in isolated homesteads, gained a scanty subsist-
ence by the pastoral industries and hunting. There were
no roads, there was no trade, no system of education, and
the government was at once tyrannical and ineffective.
At the same time the Company had spread a European
population over a district as large as the United Kingdom,
and, if we confine our notion of a colony to the narrow
limits of what would be the Company's definition, we must
admit that they had been successful. They had accom-
plished the special object which they had in view. They
had established a convenient post of call where supplies
could be obtained for their fleets, and they had made this
naval station self-supporting by means of the European
settlers whom they introduced. Moreover, the policy
which they pursued towards the natives was both humane
and prudent. If, however, we take a wider view of the
responsibilities of the Company, we must decide that they
signally failed. It is not merely that their system of
government was bad, and their trade policy uneconomic.
Regarded from this point of view, it is not enough to say
of the Company's system, as the late Judge Watermeyer
has said,* that " in all things political it was purely
despotic ; in all things commercial it was purely mono-
polist." If we hold them responsible for the well-being
of the community to which they gave birth, the directors
of the Dutch East India Company were guilty of a
political crime of the gravest character ; they allowed
a European community to become degraded and de-
civilised. And it is this decivilised European community
that England lightly essayed to govern at the commence-
ment of the present century.
In comparison with the magnitude and variety of the
interests involved in the South Africa of to-day, this
account of the actual foundation of the Cape Settlement
must necessarily appear somewhat trivial. But the
* " Three Lectures."
EARLY HISTORY AND OCCUPATION 23
traveller will gladly turn aside to visit the little stream
which is the source of some great river, grudging neither
the time nor the labour which he expends. Neither should
we, who have embarked upon the study of the past history
and present circumstances of South Africa, regret the time
which we devote to a study of the details of this early
period. For a knowledge of the period of Dutch occupa-
tion is a condition precedent to the adequate comprehension
of those great questions of South African administration
which will hereafter claim our attention.
Not only do almost, if not all, of these questions arise,
but they appear in their simplest and most intelligible form.
In the controversy between Van Riebeck and the directors
of the Company, with reference to the course to be pur-
sued in punishing the murderer of David Janssens, we
have the prototype of those endless "divergences of
opinion " between H.M.'s Government and the colonial
administrators which have filled the pages of innumerable
blue-books. In the reasoning of the Hottentot prisoner,
who " spoke tolerable Dutch," we have an epitome of
those arguments which were afterwards employed with
such grave results by the great philanthropic societies of
England. And in the mingled despotism and weakness
of the Company's government we see the explanation of
that unreasoning aversion to law and order which has
unhappily characterised the rural settlers of Dutch origin,
and intensified the difficulties of South African adminis-
tration.
I have spoken of South African history under the
figure of a river. The analogy is one which will bear
pressing, for there is a curious similarity between the
progress of South Africa and the course of a South
African river. It is no smooth stream, flowing in a
single channel down a gently falling incline. On the
contrary, its brief course is diversified by every variety
of incident, its waters are diverted into separate and
2 4 SOUTH AFRICA
distinct channels, and its current is alternately checked
by obstacles, and precipitated onwards by abrupt descents.
And if this be a true description of the nature of South
African history and progress, there is no need to add that
the study of such a subject will repay the student. With
its native question, its nationality difficulty, and its con-
solidation problem, is it too much to say that in South
Africa we have an epitome of those problems upon the
solution of which the stability of the Empire depends ?
CHAPTER II
The Kafir Wars.
IN that beautiful ode,* in which Euripides dwells with
loving fulness on the graces of his native Attica, he
places in the forefront of his enumeration the fact that her
citizens dwell in a "sacred and unravaged" land. With
how much greater propriety could an English poet point
to that immunity from the ravages of war which has
characterised the life of later generations of Englishmen.
But there are some who maintain that the discipline of
war is necessary for the perfecting of national character.
Such persons can find a quick consolation in the reflection
that this immunity is by no means the universal experi-
ence of the Anglo-Saxon race. Putting the United States
on one side — where, in the course of four years, one
million lives were lost, and property and labour to the
estimated value of two thousand million pounds sterling
were squandered — and confining ourselves to the Anglo-
Saxon communities within the Empire, there is abundant
evidence to show us, who read the history of England
as it is written in Canada, in India, in New Zealand, and
in South Africa, that the gates are seldom entirely closed
upon our British Janus. Of all the Anglo-Saxon com-
munities which have been exposed to the ravages of war
— I speak, of course, not of professional soldiers but of
non-combatants, civilians, women, and children — none
have been exposed more continuously or more fatally
to this baneful influence than the English in South Africa.
* In the Medea.
2 6 SOUTH AFRICA
But why speak of English ? We have traced the
growth of a European community at the Cape, but it
was a community exclusively of Dutch and French origin.
How is it that we speak of English ?
The permanent English occupation of the Cape com-
menced in the year 1806. At first our possession rested
upon the mere naked right of conquest, but subsequently
our position was legitimised by the Convention of London,
when, in 181 4, the Cape of Good Hope, Ceylon, and
a part of Guiana, were formally ceded by Holland
to England. For the first twenty years — the reason for
this limit will appear afterwards — the Cape Colony was
governed in the arbitrary manner usual at that time and
under like circumstances. There was, however, no " series
of ignorant and absurd governors " at the Cape, to use
the rather harsh language of Sidney Smith in his second
essay on Botany Bay. The Cape was preserved from
such a fate by two circumstances ; its strategic import-
ance, as commanding the maritime route to India, and
the natural difficulty of administering the government of
an alien population. The early governors of the Cape
were men of high character and ability. They governed
arbitrarily, no doubt — how arbitrarily may be seen from
those two lines of Pringle, in which he sums up his
experience of life at Capetown —
" Oppression, I have seen thee face to face,
And met thy cruel eye and clouded brow " —
but they were all marked by that sense of responsibility
which happily characterises Englishmen of their class.
And it was to Lord Charles Somerset, the most arbitrary
of them all, that the first introduction of a considerable
body of Englishmen was due. Lord Charles Somerset
was so pleased with the appearance of the country im-
mediately to the west of the Great Fish River that he
recommended the district to the Home Government as
THE KAFIR WARS 27
suitable for colonisation. His suggestion came at an
opportune moment, for just then the labour market of
England was terribly over-stocked. By the peace of
181 5 a large amount of labour, hitherto locked up in the
military operations which England had been conducting
against Napoleon and his allies, was set free. Out of
90,000 applications the Government accepted some 4000,
and English and Scotch emigrants to that number landed
at Algoa Bay between the months of April 1820 and
May 1 82 1. The bulk of them were established in the
parallelogram of land formed by the Fish and the
Bushman rivers, the district of Albany ; and from this
centre they and their descendants gradually spread them
selves over the whole of the eastern provinces of the
colony. It was on these EngHsh settlers that the brunt
of the inevitable conflict between the Europeans and the
Bantu naturally fell.
In the year 1826 — the date which terminates what I
have called the period of early governors — the colonial
Commissioners, who had been despatched by the Home
Government to the Pacific Settlements and the Cape,
presented their reports. As regards the Cape, they
suggested, in addition to certain administrative reforms,
a number of measures which all tended in the direction
of Anglicising the colony. These measures were many
of them good in themselves, but they were vitiated by a
common fault. They took no account of the fact that
the great majority of the population — probably six in
seven — were Dutch, not English. It is at least certain
that such measures, under like circumstances, would never
have been proposed now in any country under British
rule. For example: in 1827, English was ordered to be
used as the official language, although the proportion of
Dutch to English was what I have stated it to be — six
in seven. In 1828, the old Dutch system of local
government and the Courts of Landdrost and Heemraden
28 SOUTH AFRICA
were abolished, and an English system, with Resident
Magistrates and Civil Commissioners, was established in
its place. And in this same year General Bourke's famous
ordinance, placing the free coloured population of the
colony on an equality in point of law with the Europeans,
was issued. We shall not understand the full significance
of this measure until we have become familiar with the
conditions of Natal ; it is enough, however, to remark
here that the removal of the Hottentots from the control
of those special laws by which their life had hitherto been
regulated was regarded by the Dutch colonists as a
dangerous and revolutionary measure. But a more far-
reaching change was to follow. In 1833 the Abolition
Act was passed by the Imperial Parliament. By this
Act the institution of slavery was abolished throughout
the British dominions. It is not necessary that we should
study the arguments by which it was sought to maintain,
on political or social grounds, what Lord Brougham has
called "the wild and guilty fantasy that man can hold
property in man." But it is necessary that we should
be acquainted with the actual circumstances under which
the emancipation of slaves was carried out at the Cape ;
otherwise we shall be at a loss to understand how it was
that a measure so essentially just and humane should have
excited such feelings of indignation and alarm among a
European community.
In the first place, we must recollect what the conditions
of the colony were at this time. If we put the total
European population at 50,000 we shall probably be
stating what is not far from the truth. Of this small popu-
lation all, with the exception of a few officials and mer-
chants in the towns, depended for their subsistence upon
agriculture and stock-raising. Both of these industries
were carried on by means of slave labour ; and, for reasons
which we need not now enter into, it was, in some cases,
impossible, and in all cases difficult, to replace this slave
THE KAFIR WARS 29
labour by free coloured labour within the five years
provided by the Act, or at all.
Emancipation at the Cape meant, therefore, an entire
dislocation of the main — almost the only — industries of
the community. In the next place it involved the colo-
nists in an immediate loss of nearly ;;^2, 000,000 — a large
sum to be lost by so small a community. This sum of
;^2, 000,000 is obtained by merely taking the difference
between the ofificially appraised value of the slaves and the
amount which actually reached the slave proprietors as
compensation (Note 6). In some cases individuals —
often those who could bear such a blow least well, orphans,
widows, and aged persons — were reduced to absolute
penury ; while, speaking of the community as a whole, we
may say that there was scarcely a home in the colony which
was not at this time darkened by the shadow of pecuniary
embarrassment.
But even this last measure, grievous and oppressive
though it was felt to be, would not have driven the eastern
farmers of Dutch origin to so desperate a remedy as that
of expatriation — the remedy to which they now had recourse
— unless it had been followed by a remarkable instance of
Imperial indiscretion.
In 1834 Sir Benjamin Durban was sent out to the Cape
as Governor. He was instructed to carry through slave
emancipation, to initiate rigorous administrative retrench-
ments, and to place the relations between the Europeans
and the Kafirs on a better footing. It was this last which
immediately claimed his attention. On his arrival at
Capetown, Sir Benjamin was confronted by two opposite
opinions. On the one hand there was a small party (Note
7) of which Dr Philip, the Superintendent of the London
Missionary Society's Missions in South Africa, was the
head, and of which the then Conmiercial Advertiser was
the mouth-piece, which represented the alarms of the
eastern colonists as visionary, and the intention of the
30 SOUTH AFRICA
Kafir chiefs as pacific. On the other hand there were
almost all the colonial ofiicials, civil and military. They
regarded the condition of the eastern border as most un-
satisfactory, and believed that a Kafir invasion was imminent.
Under these circumstances Sir Benjamin Durban took what
was obviously the right course. He commissioned Dr
Philip to visit the Kafir chiefs and obtain from them
assurances of their pacific intentions. Dr Philip did so,
and on his return to Capetown he sent in a report to that
effect. Meanwhile another person, the Chief Justice, Sir
John Wylde, had in the course of his circuit visited
Grahamstown for the purpose of holding the assizes. There
he had met Macomo, who held the position of paramount
chief of the Gaikas. Sir John Wylde's impressions of the
intentions of Macomo and of the Kafirs in general was the
very opposite of Dr Philip's. He was accompanied by the
late Judge Cloete, then Mr Advocate Cloete, and the rest
of the story can be given in Cloete's own words.*
" On our return to Capetown, at a numerous convivial
meeting, to which Sir Benjamin had invited myself and my
family on New Year's Eve, I could not help dilating some-
what at length on the hostile disposition of these tribes, to
which his Excellency appeared to listen with particular in-
terest— but nothing else indicated the slightest disturbance
in society, except (what only was remembered afterwards by
some of us) that Sir Benjamin had occasionally absented
himself for a few minutes from the party. Good humour
and hilarity prevailed until we had hailed in the New Year,
when every one gradually returned to their houses ; but on
the next morning, on returning to town, I found the
astounding intelligence universally spread abroad that the
evening before his Excellency had received the account
that the Kafirs, to the number of 12,000 or 15,000 men,
had invaded the whole frontier from every quarter on
Christmas-day, burning and destroying every farm-house,
* "Five Lectures," iii. p. 67.
THE KAFIR WARS 31
murdering the inhabitants, and carrying away all their
cattle and property.
" Still doubting this information," Cloete appealed to the
Governor himself. " He, in his wonted gentle and yet firm
manner, not only confirmed the report, but jocularly
observed that he had received the sad intelligence while
we were assembled there, but that he had done all that
could be done, and had not wished to disturb the harmony
of the party by divulging such intelligence.
"That night already every order had been given to
despatch every disposable soldier, to call out all the burgher
forces, and to send off Colonel Smith, the Quarter-Master
General of the forces . . . who had started in the middle
of the night, and in five days reached Grahamstown, where
he found everything in an indescribable state of panic and
confusion."
The official returns show us what a Kafir war meant for
these unhappy eastern colonists. When the returns of
the losses sustained by the farmers on the immediate frontier
were made up, it was found that 456 farm-houses had been
burnt and entirely destroyed, 356 farm-houses had been
pillaged and partially destroyed, 60 waggons, 5715 horses,
111,930 head of horned cattle, and 161,930 sheep had
been captured and irrecoverably lost. Within the first
week fifty Europeans had been surprised and murdered.
After twelve months' hard fighting, in which the British
troops were supported by the burgher forces of the colony,
the Kafirs were driven out of the colony. Meanwhile it
became Sir Benjamin Durban's duty to devise measures
which would prevent the recurrence of such a disaster.
With the approval of his colonial advisers, civil and
military. Sir Benjamin determined to advance the frontier
from the Keiskamma to the Kei, to place a belt of
European settlers holding land on military tenure between
the Fish and the Keiskamma rivers, and then eastwards,
to locate a number of loyal Kafirs between the Keis-
38 SOUTH AFRICA
kamma and the Kei rivers, with a chain of forts in their
midst. In this way Sir Benjamin Durban thought that
he would erect a barrier sufficiently strong to resist the
pressure of the Bantu peoples who were continually
crushing southwards. These proposals were duly com-
municated to the Home Government for approval.
At this time there were two pictures of the Kafir
before the English world. In one he was represented
as a noble savage who was engaged in a heroic struggle
for his fatherland against European aggressors : a being,
indeed, of primitive impulses, but one which was capable
of almost indefinite development in the direction of
morality and civilisation. In the other he appeared
as a murderer, who knew no distinction of age or sex ;
as a destroyer, who placed his brand to the homestead
for the mere pleasure of hearing the timbers crackle,
and seeing the flames leap up to heaven. The first
picture was illuminated by the soft rays of philanthropic
enthusiasm : the second was seen in the hard, dry light
of facts (Note 8). At this time the first picture only was
known to Englishmen ; and the temper of England was
reflected in the despatch which Charles Grant, afterwards
Lord Glenelg, wrote on December 26th, 1835, almost
the very anniversary of that cruel and unprovoked in-
vasion. In this despatch the opinion was maintained
that it was the colonists and not the Kafirs who were
the real aggressors ; that the action of the Kafirs was,
in fact, only a natural and legitimate result of a long
series of oppressions which had been inflicted upon
them ; and the measures which Sir Benjamin Durban
proposed to take — had, in fact, taken — were revoked,
and the whole frontier policy was reversed.
The sensation which this despatch created in the colony
may be understood from Cloete's comment * : —
" A communication more cruel, unjust, and insulting to
* "Five Lectures," p. 73.
THE KAFIR WARS 33
the feelings, — not only of the Commander who, wholly
intent upon conciliatory measures with the Kafirs, had
been suddenly attacked, and seen the country placed
under his authority and protection invaded, but of the
inhabitants, who had not only been engaged in a twelve
months' warfare of the most harassing and dangerous
character, but who were smarting from a system pursued
during fourteen years, by the local government never
affording them redress for their most serious losses and
grievances on this subject, — can hardly have been penned
by a declared enemy of the country and its governor. . . ."
Then it was that the eastern farmers of Dutch origin,
who had shared with their English neighbours the disasters
of the war, and who, unlike them, were bound by no
ties of sentiment to the British connection, determined
to withdraw themselves from the jurisdiction of the
British Government, and seek fresh homes beyond the
borders of the colony.
Meanwhile certain movements among the Bantu tribes
beyond the frontier had taken place, which show that
this determination was not so desperate as it seems at
first sight.
In the year 1783 a little brown baby was born on the
banks of the Umvolosi River, in the centre of Zululand.
That little brown baby grew into a man, who exceeded
Nero in cruelty, and Napoleon in ambition. Before he
was grown up, Tshaka — for that was his name — quarrelled
with his own father, and took refuge in the kraal of a
neighbouring chief, Dingiswayo. This Dingiswayo had
heard of the great wars in Europe, and how soldiers
could be trained so perfectly that a whole regiment would
move with the spontaneity of a single man, and he re-
solved to train his braves on this principle. Tshaka
became the favourite general of Dingiswayo's army, and,
when the old chief died, the favourite of the army was
elected to fill his place. Then Tshaka commenced a
c
34 SOUTH AFRICA
cai'eer of conquest. At the end of this career he had
raised the Zulu tribe from an insignificant position to
the headship of the Bantu race, and made himself para-
mount lord from the Limpopo to the borders of Kaffraria.
His method was a very simple one. With the exception
of a few of the handsomest girls and the strongest boys,
whom he incorporated into his system, he exterminated
every tribe he attacked. It is estimated that between
the years 1812 and 1828 he devastated thousands of
square miles of country, and caused the death of one
million human beings. The manner of his death was
worthy of such a life. Tshaka's two brothers, Dingan
and Umhlangana, having been in terror of their lives for
a long time, at length conspired together and .slew him.
Then Dingan " got rid " of Umhlangana, and became
king of the Zulus. Meanwhile, on the western side of
the Drakensberg a like war of extermination had been
going forward under Moselekatse, a runaway general of
Tshaka. And so at this time, the year 1835, the greater
part of what is now Natal, the Free State, and the South
African Republic, was depopulated and unoccupied country.
It was to these regions that the dissatisfied farmers resolved
to retire.
The emigrants sold their properties for what they would
fetch ; they packed their household goods into their
great canvas-covered waggons, and set out, with their
flocks and their herds, like the patriarchs of old. During
the years 1835 ^^ ^^S^, trains of waggons with their
long teams of patient oxen were continually traversing
the sandy plains, and slowly winding up the sides of
the mountain ranges. They crossed the Orange River,
and there, in what is now the Free State, they founded
Winburg, the place of victory, so-called in commemora-
tion of their victory over Moselekatse and his Matabele
Zulus. They scaled the Drakensberg, and, descending
the eastern side of the ranges looked forth upon the
THE KAFIR WARS 35
terrace country of Natal. Here they founded Weenen,
the place of weeping, where Dingan butchered whole
companies of their people, and Pietermaritzburg, so-
named after two of their leaders. Subsequently they
recrossed the Drakensberg, and passing into the Transvaal,
founded Lydenburg in the high country in the north-east,
and Potchefstroom in the south.
And in the meantime what was the English Government
doing ?
When first the Colonial Government heard that it was
the intention of the dissatisfied farmers to leave the colony,
they referred the matter to the Attorney-General, Sir
Antony Oliphant. He advised the Government that he
knew of the existence of no law, Imperial or colonial,
which forbade British subjects to leave a British territory.
After this, that is to say for the next eight or ten years, the
Colonial Government, acting under instructions from home,
contented themselves with merely refusing to recognise
the existence of the white communities which were being
so irregularly brought into existence. There was, however,
an exception to the application of this principle — Natal.
The case of Natal was peculiar. In the first place,
there was already a small English population at Durban,
and in the next, Natal was a maritime province, and,
therefore, of more importance than the interior districts.
In 1839 Durban was occupied by a military force, and
in 1843 it was proclaimed British territory. At the
same time, the Government endeavoured to protect the
natives of the interior from the aggressions of the emigrant
farmers by entering into alliances with various native
chiefs, of whom the most important was Moshesh, chief
of the Basutos.
In 1846 a fresh Kafir war broke out. In the course
of this war a large number of British soldiers lost their
lives, and a large amount of British capital was expended ;
and after this experience the Imperial Government decided
36 SOUTH AFRICA
that a more energetic policy was necessary in South Africa.
Accordingly they appointed Sir Harry Smith Governor of
the Cape in 1847, and instructed him to give effect to
this change of views.
When Sir Harry Smith arrived at Capetown he issued
a proclamation extending the boundaries of the colony
northward to the Orange River and eastward to the
Keiskamma. The country between the Keiskamma and
the Kei was created a native territory under the name
of British Kaffraria. That is to say, as regards the
eastern border, Sir Harry Smith now put into effect the
measures which he, in concurrence with Sir Benjamin
Durban, had recommended twelve years before. He
then crossed over the Orange River and visited the
emigrant farmers there. He recognised the futility of
the half measures which had been taken partly in pursu-
ance of the non-interference policy and partly under the
influence of an exaggerated belief in the capacity and
pacific intention of the native chiefs, and proclaimed the
country between the Vaal River on the north and west,
the Orange River on the south, and the Drakensberg
Mountains on the east, a British territory under the
name of the Orange River Sovereignty. He placed the
emigrant farmers within the Sovereignty under the inde-
pendent control of a British official, and delimited the
boundaries between them and the natives, the Griquas
on the west, and the Basutos on the east.
These were measures which were sound in themselves,
and which met with almost universal approval in the
colony : but unfortunately they came too late. Sir Harry
Smith was scarcely back in Capetown before he received
intelligence that the emigrant farmers in the Sovereignty —
the men who five years before had vainly petitioned the
British Government to take them under their jurisdiction —
had risen, and politely but firmly requested Major Warden,
the British resident, and his handful of officials and
THE KAFIR WARS 37
police, to withdraw from Bloemfontein. It was not long
before Sir Harry Smith was on the other side of the
Orange River. He met the insurgents under Pretorius at
Boomplaats, on August 29th, 1848, and dispersed them:
and he then re-established the Sovereignty government
on a firmer basis. This affair had scarcely been settled
before another Kafir war broke out. This war, lasting
from 1851 to 1853, was really a continuation of the pre-
ceding war of 1846-7 ; for the Kafir chiefs subsequently
admitted that they had only made peace in order to
allow themselves time to collect the stores of food
necessary for a fresh campaign. Sir Harry Smith was
considered responsible in some unaccountable way for
this fresh outbreak, and he was recalled. Before he left
the colony, and while he was conducting operations in
person against the Kafirs, he received a communication
from Major Warden, stating that Pretorius, who had re-
tired beyond the Vaal after the battle of Boomplaats,
had intimated his intention of raising the emigrant farmers
in the Sovereignty unless the independence of himself
and his followers beyond the Vaal was recognised by
the Government. Sir Harry Smith had no soldiers to
spare, so he acceded to Pretorius' demands in order to
save the Sovereignty, and thus, on the 17th January 1852,
by the Sand River convention, the South African Republic,
or the Transvaal, came into existence.
Sir Harry Smith was succeeded in March by Sir George
Cathcart. The Kafir war had scarcely been brought to an
end before news came of fresh disturbances in the
Sovereignty. This time it was the natives, the Basutos,
who were the cause of the trouble, and not the emigrant
farmers. Sir George Cathcart crossed the Orange River
with quite a considerable force, 2500 men, and en-
camped on the bank of the Caledon River, From this
position he sent an ultimatum to Moshesh, the Basuto
chief. He required 10,000 head of cattle, and 1000
38 SOUTH AFRICA
horses as a compensation for the losses inflicted by
Moshesh and his people on the farmers. No doubt
Moshesh would have been quite willing to have acceded
to these demands, but unfortunately he was not an
absolute, but only a constitutional, ruler. He had to
pay attention to the opinions not only of the chiefs,
but even of the commoners of the tribe ; and the mass
of the Basutos were unwilling to part with so large an
amount of cattle without a struggle. Moshesh ultimately
sent 3500 head of cattle, with an expression of regret
that he could not provide the full amount. Then Sir
George Cathcart invaded Basutoland with his troops in
three columns. One of these columns was fortunate
enough to capture 4000 head of cattle. Another en-
countered a strong body of Basutos, and an engagement
ensued at Mount Berea, in which the Basutos rather more
than held their own against the British soldiers. And
now the wisdom of Moshesh appeared. The old chief
was not deceived for a moment by this success, or led
to suppose that his people could ultimately withstand
or conquer the British troops ; on the contrary, that
very night he sent for his missionary adviser, Mr Casahs,
and despatched this letter : —
Thaba Bosigo,
Midnight, zoth December 1852.
Your Excellency, — This day you have fought against
my people, and taken much cattle. As the object for
which you have come is to have a compensation for
Boers, I beg you will be satisfied with what you have
taken. I entreat peace from you — you have chastised
— let it be enough \ and let me be no longer considered
an enemy to the Queen. I will try all I can to keep
my people in order in the future. — Your humble servant,
Moshesh.
Sir George Cathcart had seen enough of the Basuto
THE KAFIR WARS 39
country, and of the fighting qualities of its inhabitants,
to make him quite ready to accept this quaUfied sub-
mission, and he then withdrew his forces. In the report
which he sent to the Imperial Government he recom-
mended that one of two alternatives should be pursued.
Either the Sovereignty should be altogether abandoned,
or a Lieutenant-Governor, with a force of at least 2000
men, should be established at Bloemfontein. The Imperial
Government chose the former alternative, and despatched
a special Commissioner, Sir George Clerk, to arrange
for the transference of the government to a Committee
of the emigrant farmers, and so, on the 23rd February
1854, by the convention of Bloemfontein, the Free State
was created.
We have now reached a point in the history of South
Africa where it is convenient to pause a moment, and look
round.
First, we must notice that five out of the ten or twelve
political divisions marked on the map of South Africa
to-day are already in existence. We have the Cape
Colony, Natal, and British Kaffraria — all three British
possessions ; and, in addition, the two independent com-
munities founded by the emigrant farmers, the South
African Republic, and the Free State. Moreover, the
Imperial Government, taught by the experience of the
last twenty years, have now arrived at two conclusions.
In the first place they have decided to give the colonists
a larger share in the management of their affairs. In
these successive Kafir wars a large number of British
soldiers — four hundred men went down in the transport
Birkenhead, under circumstances of heroism which are
still remembered — had been sacrificed, and a large amount
of British capital had been wasted. Not only so, but the
eastern farmers claimed compensation for the losses in-
flicted upon them by the Kafirs in these wars, and during
the intervening depredations, on the ground that the
40 SOUTH AFRICA
Imperial Government, through their agent, Lord Glenelg,
had accepted the entire responsibihty for the reversal of
the colonial frontier policy in 1835. This claim was not
allowed ; at the same time almost the entire cost of the
military operations against the Kafirs was defrayed by the
Imperial exchequer. The Imperial Government had very
practical evidence, therefore, of the evils resulting from
the disregard of local opinion and advice; and in 1853 a
representative Constitution was granted to the Cape Colony.
By this Constitution two elective chambers, an upper-
chamber, or Legislative Council, with fifteen members,
and a Legislative Assembly with forty-six members, were
created. Full parliamentary freedom, responsible govern-
ment, was not granted until twenty years later, in 1872.
The executive officials were still appointed by the Governor,
instead of being chosen from among the representatives
elected to Parliament, and they were, therefore, responsible
for their actions to the Crown, and not to the people of
the colony. At the same time the colonists had hence-
forward a means by which they could bring their wishes
and their opinions in a direct and effective manner before
the colonial, and ultimately, before the Imperial authorities.
The second conclusion was the determination not to
interfere in affairs beyond the borders of the British
possessions, and to leave the emigrant farmers and the
natives to adjust their differences by themselves. It is
quite true that certain limitations were imposed by the
conventions upon the Boer governments in respect of the
treatment of the natives. At the same time, it is perfectly
clear that at this time the Imperial Government, without
formally surrendering its paramount position, intended to
retire from the task of controlling the European expansion,
and the consequent disintegration of the Bantu peoples.
Both the Sand River and the Bloemfontein conventions
contained clauses in which Her Majesty's Government
disclaimed any intention of making any further treaties
THE KAFIR WARS 41
with native chiefs outside the limits of the British posses-
sions. This decision was based on a feehng which
Tennyson has called " the craven fear of being great."
It was an attempt to escape from responsibiUties which
naturally and rightly belonged to England as the para-
mount power in South Africa. As an attempt to escape
responsibilities it was both unsuccessful and disastrous.
It was unsuccessful, because the same difficulties arose
at a later period, and had then to be met under less
favourable conditions. It was disastrous, because by
this policy of non-intervention the Imperial Government
became a party to a process which Sir George Grey has
called "the dismemberment of South Africa." By this
process the Europeans, as representing the forces of
civilisation, were weakened by separation and division
in the conflict with the Bantu peoples, as representing
the forces of barbarism ; and the moral intervals which
had from the first separated the two sections, Dutch and
English, were emphasised and perpetuated.
Meanwhile, in spite of war and devastation, in spite
of drought and blight, in spite of administrative blunders
and political misunderstandings, the colonists were steadily
advancing in wealth and civilisation. The Drakenstein
range had been pierced by Lord Charles Somerset at
French Hoek, and again, by Sir Lowy Cole, at Hottentots
Holland. In 1844, Colonial Secretary John Montagu
projected, and Colonel Mitchell and Mr Andrew Bain
executed, that system of roads which Sir Harry Smith
declared "would do honour to a great nation instead of
a mere dependency of the Crown;" and on the 31st of
March 1859, the first sod of the Capetown and Welling-
ton railway was turned by Sir George Grey. Merino
sheep, the producers of fine wool, were introduced from
Saxony by Reitz and Breda in 18 12, by Lord Charles
Somerset and by the Albany settlers in 1820; and thus
early the foundation of the staple industry of the colony
42 SOUTH AFRICA
was laid. By 1S65 the ostrich — the wildest of birds —
had been tamed but not domesticated; but in 1869 Mr
Arthur Douglass of Albany perfected his artificial in-
cubator, and under the stimulus of this invention, the
export of ostrich feathers rose in a single year from 17,000
lbs. to 28,000 lbs.
The missionaries, too, were at work. Moffat was
established at Kuruman, Livingstone was exploring regions
beyond the reach of his enemies the emigrant Boers, and
demanded at this early period the free navigation of the
Zambesi. And in 1841 the Kafir College of Lovedale,
perhaps the most important individual agency for
civilisation in South Africa, was founded by Govan.
All this time the earth was waiting to reveal her
treasures. The ample stores of coal in the Transvaal
and Natal remained unharvested ; the golden reefs of the
Randt Basin were as yet untouched by the prospector's
hammer ; the diamonds of Kimberley lay close packed
in the blue earth of their volcanic pipes in a despised
corner of the Free State. In a word, the Cinderella of
the Empire had not yet been visited by her fairy god-
mothei.
CHAPTER III.
Sir Bartle Frere and Confederation.
AT the end of the period 1806-1854, the Imperial
■^^ Government had arrived at two conclusions with
regard to the future administration of South Africa. In
the first place they had decided to restrict their adminis-
tration to the limits of the Cape Colony, Natal, and
British Kaffraria. In the next, they had determined to
give to the colonists a larger share in the management
of their affairs, and in 1853 a Parliament, with two
representative chambers, was established at Capetown.
It is with this last decision that we must connect the
appointment of such a governor as Sir George Grey ; —
a governor, that is to say, who was qualified not by
military experience, but by a capacity for administration,
in part natural and in part acquired during the discharge
of the duties of that office in South Australia and New
Zealand.
The period of Sir George Grey's administration, lasting
from 1854 to 1862 — for he was recalled and reinstated —
is remarkable in many respects. We will select two.
He originated a method of dealing with the Kafirs which
was at once more effective and more humane (Note 9),
and he formed a remarkable forecast of the future history
of South Africa, In condemning the policy of non-inter-
vention, and the consequent dismemberment of South
Africa, he foresaw two important movements — that the
Bantu would one day be tempted by the separation and
apparent weakness of the Europeans to contest the
44 SOUTH AFRICA
supremacy of race, and that, in the event of a second
conflict between the Imperial Government and the Dutch
population, the strength of the resistance to be encountered
would be measured, not by the conditions of the Dutch
within the colony, but by those of their more strenuous
and independent kinsmen. Sir George Grey not only
foresaw these dangers, but he suggested appropriate
remedies. He recognised the danger of leaving the
growing Zulu people in utter barbarism, and he therefore
recommended that European residents and magistrates
should be introduced among them as well as among the
Kafirs. He recognised that the attitude of the whole
Dutch population in South Africa would be determined
by that of the independent States, and he therefore
proposed to bring back these States within the sphere of
Imperial control by uniting them to the British Colonies
in a federal tie (Note lo). Had these suggestions been
carried out, England might have been saved the disaster
of Isandlhwana and the disgrace of Majuba Hill,
As it was, the Imperial Government maintained their
policy of non-intervention with fair consistency for the
next fifteen years. During this period, partly owing to
the improved methods of dealing with the Kafirs, intro-
duced by Sir George Grey, and partly owing to the
weakening of the warlike Amakosa clans — the Gaikas
and Galekas — by the extraordinary self-destruction which
took place in the year 1857, there was no outbreak on
the eastern border (Note 11). During this period,
too, the colonists made slow but steady progress, the
sort of progress which is typified by the ox-waggon, the
national vehicle of South Africa. But though this pro-
gress was slow, it was real enough to justify the Imperial
Government in contemplating the extension to the Cape
Colony of that full parliamentary freedom which they
had already granted fifteen years ago to the Pacific
Colonies: and in 1869 Sir Henry Barkly was appointed
SIR BARTLE FRERE AND CONFEDERATION 45
Governor and instructed to carry through the measures
necessary for the introduction of responsible government.
The new constitution was at length proclaimed on the
29th of November 1872. But before this date an event
had occurred which very materially altered the attitude of
England to South Africa. This event was the discovery
of diamonds in 1869, and the subsequent establishment
of the diamond industry at Kimberley in 1870. The
non - intervention policy was at once abandoned. In
1 87 1, British authority was proclaimed over the diamond
fields, together with a large district to the north of the
Orange and the Vaal Rivers, and the new territory was
named Griqualand West. By this action the Imperial
Government were brought into conflict with both of the
Boer States. The Government of the South African
Republic protested that the proclamation of British
authority over so much of Griqualand West as was north
of the Vaal River was a contravention of the third Article
of the Sand River convention —
" Her Majesty's Assistant Commissioners hereby disclaim
all alliances whatever, and with whomsoever, of the
coloured tribes to the north of the Vaal River."
The Free State Government declared that the actual
diamond fields, the district enclosed between the fork of the
Vaal and Orange Rivers, was part of their territory, and
had in fact been part of the original " sovereignty " as
proclaimed by Sir Harry Smith in 1848.
The dispute with the South African Republic was
referred to arbitration. A commission was appointed,
over which Mr Keate, the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal
presided. The Keate Award was in favour of the Imperial
Government. The Volksraad thereupon repudiated the
engagement to abide by the result of that award which
had been made on its behalf by President Pretorius, and
Pretorius resigned. The matter was then left in abey-
ance, and the question of the delimitation of the south-
46 SOUTH AFRICA
west boundary of the South African Repubhc was not
finally settled until the provisions of the convention
of London were enforced by the Bechuanaland expedition
of 1885. To the Free State Government it was replied
that the land in question had been acquired by purchase
from a Griqua chief, Waterboer by name ; and the Free
State protested and withdrew. Subsequently, however,
a land court was established in Griqualand West, and
the claims of individual owners were subjected to legal
scrutiny. It was then discovered that the title of Water-
boer to the diamond fields was bad ; for all claims to
land based upon grants made by Waterboer were rejected
by this Court. President Brand then proceeded to
London, to lay his case before the Colonial Office. It
was a simple case. The Imperial Government had based
their right to the diamond fields upon Waterboer's grant.
It had been held by a British Court of Justice that Water-
boer's title to the land was bad, and therefore, since no
vendor can give his purchaser a better title than that
which he himself possesses, the title of the Imperial
Government was equally bad. Then the Colonial Office
produced a new argument. They reverted to the posi-
tion which England had held in South Africa before the
Sand River and the Bloemfontein conventions. They
declared that the Imperial Government, as the supreme
authority in South Africa, had the right to interfere in
the affairs of these otherwise independent communities
when the safety or well-being of South Africa as a whole
required such interference. At the same time Lord
Carnarvon, who was then Colonial Secretary, recognised
that the Free State had a grievance, and he arranged
a compromise. Ultimately a sum of over ^,^1 00,000
was paid to the Free State Government by way of com-
pensation.
Now, although this principle, that the responsibility of
England as paramount power must be accompanied by
SIR BARTLE FRERE AND CONFEDERATION 47
corresponding rights over the whole of South Africa, is
both sound and necessary, and although the special con-
tention of the Colonial Office, that these paramount rights
and powers were not waived by the two conventions, can
be shown to be just, since both these documents contain
requirements and stipulations which could only be rendered
effectual by the maintenance of England's relationship of
paramount power towards the states in question : at the
same time it was unfortunate, to say the least, that this
principle should only have been brought forward by the
Colonial Office after the title by purchase had fallen
through. We are reminded in a very awkward manner by
this action of the Colonial Office of that much quoted line
in Horace, in which the man of the world is satirically
represented as advising his pupil,
" Si possis, recte, si non quocunque modo rem."
" Make money, honestly if you can, if not — somehow
or other." And we who believe, to use Lord Rosebery's
phrase, that the British Empire is " the greatest secular
agency for good known to the world," have a right to
expect, and to require, that England shall not be placed
in so equivocal a position either by the want of foresight,
or by the mere carelessness of her officials.
The establishment of the diamond industry had an
immediate effect upon the prospects of the Cape Colony.
Within the five years succeeding the date of the discovery
the revenue of the colony was more than doubled. And
it was on the strength of this increasing revenue that the
first premier, Sir John Molteno, was able to commence an
extensive programme of railway construction by which the
two chief towns, Capetown and Port-Elizabeth, were con-
nected, and the inland districts brought into direct railway
communication with the ports. But there were other
results from the working of the Kimberley mines which
were less happy. The rough work of excavation and of
48 SOUTH AFRICA
raising the diamondiferous earth was done by natives.
These Kafirs came from various parts of South Africa, and
engaged themselves for periods of three months, or six
months, as the case might be, and then returned to their
homes with earnings which represented to them, with their
moderate ideas of wealth, very large sums. With an
extraordinary disregard of the interests of the other
European communities, the Government of Griqualand
West permitted the natives to spend part of their wages in
the purchase of firearms. Among those who did so were
some members of the Hlubi tribe — a tribe which was located
on the western borders of Natal. Now the laws of Natal
which regulated the possession of firearms by the Kafirs
were necessarily very strict. Every native on becoming
possessed of a gun was required to register his name with
the magistrate of his district. These Hlubis neglected to do
this ; and Langa, their chief, was summoned to Maritzburg
to answer for the misdemeanour of his people by the
Governor of Natal, who, under the Natal constitution, was
paramount chief of all the Kafirs in the colony. Langa
neglected, or refused, to obey the summons ; ultimately the
law was enforced by the co-operation of the Cape Govern-
ment, but not before the Europeans in South Africa had
experienced a very ugly feeling of alarm.
It was just at this time, when South Africa was beginning
to attract population and capital from England, that Lord
Beaconsfield's government came into power, and Lord
Carnarvon became Secretary for the colonies. The con-
ditions of South Africa were better known now, thanks to
the diamond fields, and Lord Carnarvon saw in those
conditions two strong reasons for establishing a central
government — the necessity of adopting a common policy
towards the natives as evidenced by the Hlubi incident,
and the desirability of avoiding further conflicts with the
Boer States. Moreover, Lord Carnarvon had, in 1867, in-
troduced a bill uniting the British North American colonies
SIR BARTLE FRERE AND CONFEDERATION 49
in a single federal system, the Canadian Dominion, and
he naturally sought to apply the same remedy to South
Africa. That same year, 1874, he sent out despatches in
which he recommended that the Cape government should
summon representatives from the various colonies and
states to attend a conference on federation ; and he de-
spatched the late Mr J. A. Froude to act as his own
representative. Unfortunately, through some misunder-
standing between the Colonial Office and the Cape ministers,
that conference was not summoned, and an opportunity
for uniting South Africa was lost. Events subsequently
happened which made the necessity for the creation of this
central authority all the more obvious. In the year 1876
the government of the South African Republic practically
collapsed. Sikukuni, a Kafir chief in the mountain country
in the north-east of the Transvaal, revolted, and defeated
the burgher forces which were sent against him under
the command of the president Mr Burgers. At the same
time the Boers had become involved in a dispute respecting
their eastern border with Ketshwayo, the formidable king of
the Zulus. Under the strain of military service the farmers
became impoverished, and the Transvaal treasury was at
one time so empty that there was not money enough to
pay for the carriage of ammunition from Durban to Pretoria.
By an application of the principle already mentioned — the
principle that England was responsible as paramount power
for the well-being of South Africa as a whole — the Imperial
Government decided, under certain circumstances, to es-
tabUsh the Queen's authority in the Transvaal ; and a
commission was issued empowering Sir Theophilus Shep-
stone to take the necessary measures, if certain eventualities
were realised. The "emergency" contemplated by the
commission subsequently appeared to have arisen, and on
the 12th of April 1877, Sir Theophilus Shepstone, who
had ridden into Pretoria with a small body of police, raised
the English flag (Note 12). Meanwhile Lord Carnarvon
D
50 SOUTH AFRICA
had carried a second South Africa bill through the Imperial
Parliament, and selected a very able Indian administrator,
Sir Bartle Frere, to obtain the adoption of its provisions by
the local legislatures.
Sir Bartle Frere reached the Cape on March 31st,
1877. He was in no way responsible for the annexa-
tion of the Transvaal. The news of this event did
not reach him officially until the 30th of April. And
before he could address himself to the work of South
African union a native insurrection had broken out, in
August, on the eastern frontier of the colony. First the
Gaikas under Sandille, and then the Galekas under Kreli,
revolted. Sir Bartle Frere went himself to the disturbed
districts in order that he might personally supervise the
measures taken to suppress the revolt. As a result of
his energetic action the area of the disturbance was from
the first confined, and, in general, the colonists in the
eastern provinces were preserved from the horrors and
losses of a long-protracted Kafir war of the old type.
It was not, however, until the following May that peace
was entirely restored. Meantime a more formidable
champion of the Bantu peoples had entered the arena
to dispute the supremacy of race in South Africa. This
was Ketshwayo, the grandson of Tshaka. It has already
been mentioned that, at the time of the annexation of
the Transvaal, the Zulus were engaged in a dispute with
the Boer farmers on the eastern border. After the
annexation Ketshwayo transferred his quarrel to the new
Transvaal Government ; and as early as December i oth,
1877, Sir Henry Bulwer, the Governor of Natal, informed
Sir Bartle Frere that, though a " general collision "
between the Zulus and the Boers might be avoided, it
was impossible to prevent conflicts between individual
farmers and parties of Zulus. In that despatch * he also
spoke of a " bitter feeling " against the new Transvaal
* C — 2000.
SIR BARTLE FRERE AND CONFEDERATION 51
Government as existing on the part of the Zulus, and
further suggested that a " third party " should be appointed
to arbitrate between Ketshwayo and the Transvaal Govern-
ment. Sir Bartle Frere decided to undertake the duties
of arbitrator himself, and in September 1878, he visited
Natal with a view of settling the dispute. After examining
the evidence of the frontier commission, he gave his award
in favour of the Zulu claim. At the same time he accom-
panied the announcement of that award with certain re-
quirements which he deemed necessary to secure the peace
of South Africa. The most important of these requirements
were (i) that Ketshwayo should disband his army; (2)
that he should receive a British resident at Ulundi, his
capital ; (3) that he should surrender certain persons
known to have committed an offence on Natal territory ;
and (4) that he should give certain guarantees for the
better government of his people.
Now, as it is obvious that, if Ketshwayo acceded to
these demands, he would have reduced himself from a
position of independence to that of a vassal of the British
Government, the question arises whether Sir Bartle Frere
was justified at this time in sending what was practically
an ultimatum to the Zulu king. Before we are in a
position to answer that question we must inform ourselves
on two material points — the nature of the Zulu system,
and the conditions of Natal.
By methods analogous to those of ancient Sparta, that
is to say, by turning the entire physical resources of his
people in one direction, that of war, Ketshwayo was in
possession at this time of a " military organisation which
enabled [him] to form out of his comparatively small
population an army, at the very lowest estimate, of
25,000 perfectly trained and perfectly obedient soldiers,
able to march three times as fast as we could, to dispense
with commissariat of every kind and transport of every
kind, and to fall upon [Natal] or any part of the neigh-
52 SOUTH AFRICA
bouring colony in such numbers, and with such deter-
mination, that nothing but a fortified post could resist
them, making no prisoners, and sparing neither age nor
sex."*
The conditions of Natal were these. There were in
Natal at this time rather more than 20,000 Europeans.
The remainder of the population was composed of over
300,000 Bantu, of whom the majority, we will say two-
thirds, were Zulus : that is to say, they were members of
Ketshwayo's own tribe, and a large proportion of them
had crossed the border in order that they might enjoy
the peace and security offered by the Natal Government
(Note 13). If, therefore, Ketshwayo invaded Natal with
his army — still more, if he fought a successful engagement
on colonial soil — there was a grave danger, amounting
almost to a moral certainty, that the mass of the Bantu in
Natal would, by a mere instinct of self-preservation, join
the invaders.
Moreover, it must be remembered that the designs
of Ketshwayo were by no means confined to the destruc-
tion of Natal. " Wherever there has been disturbance and
resistance to authority of Government," Sir Bartle Frere
writes on the eve of the war,t "between the Limpopo and
the westernmost limits of Kafir population, there we have
found unmistakeable evidence " of a " common purpose
and general understanding " among the Bantu people
to shake off the domination of the Europeans. Of this
movement Ketshwayo was the "head centre," and the
Zulus the "main strength."
In order to form a clear understanding of this most
material point — the relationship of the Zulu power to the
civilised communities of South Africa at this crisis — we
• Despatch of Frere to Sir Michael Hicks-Beach (who had succeeded
Lord Carnarvon as Secretary for the Colonies), March ist, 1879. C —
2316.
t Despatch, Dec. loth, 1878. C— 2222.
SIR BARTLE FRERE AND CONFEDERATION 53
will take an imaginary case. We will suppose that
an aggressive person has taken up a position at a street-
corner, with a loaded gun raised to his shoulder ; we will
suppose, further, that he covers with his piece a passer-by.
What, then, is the duty of the policeman ? Is he to wait
until this aggressive individual has actually discharged his
piece and wounded an innocent person, or must he
advance at once and disarm him? Again, would the
policeman consider it a sufficient answer, if the armed
man objected, " But I have not yet fired my gun. You
need not be alarmed ; I always carry a loaded gun about
with me, and often raise it to my shoulder." Plainly
not ; neither did Sir Bartle Frere consider that he was
justified in allowing the Zulu army to further menace
the peace of the Europeans throughout South Africa
" We may blind ourselves as we will to the truth," he
writes,* "gunmakers and gun-runners may make excuses
for gun-running. Philanthropists may find reasons for
barbarisms, and persuade themselves of good intentions,
belied by every word and act of the chiefs lifetime.
Lawyers may talk of constitutional rights, which would
find a more natural and congenial habitation on the deck
of a private vessel, and every one in active life may agree
to postpone the correction of a vicious system, 'which
may last our time,' to some more convenient season,
when * something may turn up ' to save us trouble, or
throw it on our successors. But the fact remains, that
no one can really sleep in peace and security within a
day's run of the Zulu border — save by sufferance of the
Zulu chief."
When Ketshwayo had refused, or rather neglected,
to comply with these demands. Sir Bartle Frere entrusted
the enforcement of his requirements to Lord Chelmsford,
who was then in command of the British force in Natal.
Lord Chelmsford crossed the lower Tugela early in
* Despatch, Dec. 2nd, 1878. C — 2222.
54 SOUTH AFRICA
January 1879. One column advanced as far as Etshowe,
fortified a position there, and remained in the heart of
Zululand until it was ultimately relieved six months later
after the battle of Ulundi. The main body under Lord
Chelmsford advanced in a north-westerly direction until
camp was formed at Isandlhwana. On the 22nd of
January Lord Chelmsford again advanced, intending to
select a fresh position, leaving in camp a force of 700
British and colonial, and 600 native troops. The Zulus,
15,000 strong, evaded Lord Chelmsford's force, and ad-
vanced in crescent shaped formation upon the camp at
Isandlhwana. Before the horns of the impi united forty
Europeans escaped. Two officers, lieutenants Melvill
and Coghill, made a gallant attempt to save the colours
of the 24th ; but they were pursued and overtaken at the
Buffalo River. The rest fought as long as their ammuni-
tion lasted — and then they died. After the force at
Isandlhwana had been destroyed, 4000 Zulus advanced
to Rorke's Drift, to occupy the ford by which the Buffalo
River could be crossed and Natal entered. Fortunately
a small force, rather more than 100 men of the 24th,
under lieutenants Chard and Bromhead, had been left
at Rorke's Drift. They occupied a mission house which
they strengthened by biscuit tins and bags of mealies.
Behind this defence they offered so strenuous a resistance
that the Zulus were compelled to retire without seizing
the position, and Natal was saved from immediate invasion.
Lord Chelmsford then fell back upon his base in
Natal, and waited for reinforcements. Ultimately he
advanced again into Zululand, and on the 4th of July
he engaged the enemy at Ulundi. The force under his
command amounted to 4000 British and colonial troops
and 1000 natives: the number of the Zulus in action he
estimated at 20,000. On the 6th of July he was able to
report * to the Secretary for War, that he felt he had a
• C— 2482.
SIR BARTLE FRERE AND CONFEDERATION 55
right to say " that the result of Ulundi would be sufificient
to dispel the idea that Ketshwayo could defeat British
troops in the open from the minds of the Zulu nation,
and of every other tribe in South Africa for ever." On
27th August Lord Wolseley, who had superseded Lord
Chelmsford immediately after Ulundi, reported * that,
" with the exception of the north-western corner inhabited
by Makuluni, the whole of Zululand might now be con-
sidered safe for the smallest parties of Europeans." And
on 12 th December he again reported f to the Secretary
for the Colonies that "the force under Colonel Baker
Russell's command had stormed and taken Sikukuni's
stronghold" on the 28th of November.
Since that time the supremacy of the European race
has not been seriously contested in South Africa.
The subjugation of the Bantu — that which had been
a condition precedent to the union of the South African
Colonies and States — was now accomplished, and Sir
Bartle Frere was able to resume the work which he was
specially commissioned to carry out.
In the meantime a new factor had been introduced
into the already complicated problem of South African
politics. After the disaster of Isandlhwana, cable com-
munication had been established with England. The
unhappy notoriety which the country acquired in the
Zulu war had rendered the English public more familiar
with the affairs of South Africa, and the comments and
opinions of the leaders of the two great parties were
quickly reproduced in the colonial papers by means of
the telegraph. In order to trace the effect produced by
the play of English party politics upon the measures taken
to forward South African federation, it is necessary to go
back for a moment to the affairs of the Transvaal.
The annexation, accomplished in April 1877, as already
related, was welcome enough to the inhabitants of the
* Idem. + C— 2505.
56 SOUTH AFRICA
towns, who were for the most part of English or German
origin, but it was resisted from the first by the farmers
— that is to say, by the actual Boer population. Delegates
from the Volksraad were at once despatched to the
Colonial Office to ask for the restoration of independence.
This delegation, and a second delegation which visited
England in the following year, were alike unsuccessful ;
but towards the end of 1879, the year of the Zulu war,
a ray of light came from an unexpected quarter. In the
autumn of that year Mr Gladstone embarked upon his
Midlothian Campaign. In one of the speeches in which
he arraigned Lord Beaconsfield's administration, he spoke
in terms of frank condemnation of the annexation of the
Transvaal. In February of the following year, 1880,
an address,* signed by the Africander population in the
Cape Colony, was forwarded to Mr Gladstone ; and in
this address he was asked to use his influence on behalf
of the restoration of the independence of the Transvaal.
In April of that year the Liberal party came into power,
but Mr Gladstone then informed a further delegation that
he was unable to advise the Queen to withdraw the
British Government from their country. At the same
time the Boer leaders, Messrs Kruger and Joubert, had
received assurances of sympathy from private members
of the Liberal party, and on their return to South Africa
they resolved to commence an agitation in the Cape
Colony. It was just then — at the opening of the winter
session of the Cape Parliament — that the proposals of
the Cape Ministry for a Federation Conference were
brought before the Cape Parliament. The Boer delegates,
acting under the advice of the leaders of the Africander
opposition, obtained promises of support from the
members who represented Africander constituencies.
These members agreed to oppose the Federation pro-
posals of Sir Gordon Sprigg's ministry on the ground
* Enclosed in Despatch, March 8th, 1880. C— 2695.
SIR BARTLE FRERE AND CONFEDERATION 57
that the question of Transvaal independence ought to
precede the question of South African Union. After a
prolonged debate the Ministry ultimately avoided defeat
by withdrawing their Conference proposals on June 29th,
1880. As soon as the despatches containing reports of
the debates in the Cape Parliament, and information of
the virtual defeat of the Colonial Ministry on the Federa-
tion question reached England, Lord Kimberley, the
new Secretary of State for the Colonies, at once tele-
graphed to Sir Bartle Frere that the Government had
advised the Queen to replace him by another Governor.*
The news of Sir Bartle Frere's recall (Note 1 4) produced
a very general and a very sincere expression of regret. Ad-
dresses containing such opinions were forwarded from all
parts of the Cape Colony. Judged by the test of " interests
involved," no community was better able to pronounce an
opinion on the merits or demerits of Sir Bartle Frere's
administration than the inhabitants of the Albany district.
The verdict of Albany was clear and unmistakeable : —
" Never did colonial governor find himself at the very
outset of his duties confronted with so many and such
startling difficulties as met you soon after you reached
our shores. Never did governor more effectually grasp
the situation, and more successfully deal with these
difficulties than you did. You carried the Galeka war,
... to a successful issue. . . .
" We have watched with the most anxious interest your
career during that eventful period when the affairs of the
neighbouring colony of Natal were administered by you ;
we perfectly understand that at that crisis the deep-laid
plans and cruel purposes of the savage and bloodthirsty
King of the Zulus were just reaching their full develop-
ment, and that his inevitable and long-effected encounter
with the British power could no longer be averted ; it
was, no doubt, unfortunate for your personal convenience
• C-265S.
58 SOUTH AFRICA
at the present time ; it would appear also to have been
temporarily unfortunate for your reputation, but it was
extremely fortunate for that colony, and for the honour
of the British name, that you were on the spot ready to
sacrifice every personal consideration, and to undertake
one of the heaviest and most tremendous responsibilities
ever undertaken by servant of the Crown. Your excellent
plans, your steady determination, your unflagging perse-
verance, led to the downfall of a barbarous tyrant, the
break-up of a most formidable and unwarrantable military
power, and the establishment of peaceful relations, which,
properly managed, might have ensured the lasting peace
and prosperity which you have systematically desired to
secure for South Africa." *
Meanwhile the Boer leaders, Messrs Kruger and
Joubert, were writing to their sympathisers in England,
"The fall of Sir Bartle Frere will be . . useful." t It
is a significant fact that the letter in which this sentence
occurs was dated June 26th, that is to say, three days
before the actual decision of the Cape Parliament (June
29th). It is significant, because it shows to how large an
extent the defeat of the colonial ministry, and the failure
of Sir Bartle Frere to carry through the South African
federation, was due to the fact that it was known in the
colony that he — the governor of the colony — was deprived
by a swing of the political pendulum of the support of
his official superiors, and — what was still more important —
of the support of public opinion in England.
I do not think there is a more painful record in the
annals of colonial administration than this story of the
abandonment and betrayal of Sir Bartle Frere.
We need not trouble ourselves with the reproofs ad-
ministered from Downing Street, with the complaint that
he had exceeded the letter of his instructions in not
referring to the Imperial Government before he sent
* C-2740. t C-2655.
SIR BARTLE FRERE AND CONFEDERATION 59
what was practically an ultimatum to the Zulu king.
Sir George Grey, who had anticipated Frere in the
circumstances of his own recall, had also provided a
sufficient answer to this and similar complaints, when,
twenty years before, he penned the indignant question : — *
" Can a man who, on a distant and exposed frontier,
surrounded by difficulties, with invasions of Her Majesty's
territories threatening on several points, assumes a re-
sponsibility which he guided by many circumstances which
he can neither record nor remember as they came hurry-
ing on one after the other, be fairly judged of in respect to
the amount of responsibility he assumes by those who, in
the quiet of distant offices in London, know nothing of the
anxieties or nature of the difficulties he had to encounter ? "
But how was England misled ? How was it that
England was thus unjust to the man, who was, after all,
only faithfully and skilfully discharging the duties of his
office ? Sir Bartle Frere was in no way responsible
for any military error. The disaster of Isandlhwana, by
which he was discredited, was in reality the clearest evidence
of his foresight, and the most complete justification of his
action ; for a barbarous power, which could annihilate a
British regiment in the open, was obviously no safe neigh-
bour for Natal ; and what security could there be for the
400,000 Europeans in South Africa so long as the
absolute master of that power entertained the design, or
even believed in the possibility of uniting the 3,000,000
Bantu in a war of race ?
There is an explanation which lies ready to hand. We can
turn to that storehouse of political experience, the literature
of ancient Greece, and read in the pages of the historian of
Athens the comprehensive verdict, " a Democracy is in-
capable of Empire."
But is this sufficient ? Is it sufficient for us who believe
that a democracy is capable of empire, of an empire with
* •' Correspondence," etc., printed April 17th, i860, p. 26.
6o SOUTH AFRICA
wider boundaries and higher aims than any empire yet
recorded in history ? I think not. I think we shall seek
for a temporary disorder before we admit the existence of
an incurable malady in the body politic.
At the time that this blow fell England had lately stood
face to face with her great world-rival Russia ; and in the
moment of that ordeal she had realised, as she had never
realised before, the dignity and the responsibility of her
Imperial position. What wonder if, at such a time, when
the multitudinous interests of an empire in four continents
were crowding upon her, England forgot the suspended
union of South Africa, forgot the deadly peril of Natal,
forgot the iniquitous system by which a whole people had
been converted into a man-slaying machine, forgot that
Ketshwayo was the grandson of Tshaka, and knew only that
a British regiment had been sacrificed to a barbarous enemy.
Was it strange, too, if England in her vexation and alarm
did not discriminate too nicely in visiting her displeasure ?
" Yes, we arraign her, but she,
The weary Titan, with deaf
Ears, and labour-dimmed eyes.
Regarding neither to right
Nor left, goes passively by,
Staggering on to her goal ;
Bearing on shoulders immense,
Atlantean, the load,
Well nigh not to be borne.
Of the too vast orb of her fate."
And the remedy ? It lies in the creation of a central
authority which shall embody the consolidated resources of
the empire. Such an authority must include represen-
tatives from every province of the empire, that so it may be
informed with equal exactness of the necessities of each
component part, and control without dispute the Imperial
exchequer formed by their united contributions. Entrusted
to such an authority, we may hope that an Imperial policy
will at length be unaffected by the side issues of party politics,
and unrestricted by the exigences of national finance.
CHAPTER IV.
The Boers.
EARLY in the year 1881 Englishmen were startled by
the receipt of strange intelligence. The garrisons in
the Transvaal had been surrounded and isolated by
insurgents. On the 20th of December a detachment of
the 94th, more than 250 strong, marching from Lydenburg
to Pretoria, were attacked in a narrow defile, Bronkhorst
Spruit ; the commanding officer and fifty-four men were
killed, seven officers and ninety-one men were wounded,
and the rest were taken prisoners. At the end of January
General CoUey, who was in command of the troops in
Natal, advanced to the relief of the garrisons in the Trans-
vaal. He found that his way was barred. Lang's Nek,
at the entrance of the pass over the Drakensberg leading
from Natal to the Transvaal, had been occupied by the
insurgents. The attack made by the force under General
Colley, 1 100 strong, on the 28th of January, was repulsed
with heavy loss. Colonel Deane and all the staff and
mounted officers were shot down, and 190 rank and file
were reported as dead, wounded, or missing. Ten days
later, on the 8th of February, as General Colley was
patrolling the road to Newcastle with a force of 300 men,
in order to maintain his line of communication between
that place and the camp at Mount Prospect, he was
attacked at Ingogo Heights. In this engagement four
officers were killed, and three were wounded, and 150 men
were reported killed or wounded. But the crowning
disaster was still to come. On the night of the 26th of
61
62 SOUTH AFRICA
February, General CoUey left the camp at Mount Prospect
with 600 men, intending to turn the insurgents' position at
Lang's Nek by occupying Majuba Hill, an eminence which
commanded the Boer lines. He detached part of this
force to maintain communication with the camp, and
posted the remainder, some 400 men, on the level top.
The next morning, when the Boer leaders saw that the level
plateau of Majuba was fringed with redcoats, they at once
realised the significance of the movement. One hundred and
fifty volunteers offered to make an attempt, which seemed
hopeless enough, to scale the hill and dislodge the English.
At four o'clock it was known at Mount Prospect that the
Boers had carried the hill soon after mid-day. It was
subsequently ascertained that General Colley was shot in
fighting line with two officers close by him, that ninety-two
men had been killed and 200 wounded and captured.
In these and some minor engagements as many as 800
English officers and men had been killed or wounded. On
the other hand, the Boers had lost eighteen men killed and
thirty-three wounded.
And who, then, were these Boers, and what were their
circumstances ?
The replies elicited by these enquiries heightened the
extraordinary character of the intelligence, and increased
the bewilderment of the public. For it appeared that the
enemy which had inflicted these successive and severe
defeats upon the British arms were the burgher force of
a community of farmers — a community numbering only
50,000 inhabitants, that is to say, with a population
smaller than that of an English town of the third rank.
Their present circumstances, the actual grounds of their
quarrel with the Imperial Government, were imperfectly
understood. What their previous relationship to England
had been, how they came to be in possession of a country
scarcely less in area than the United Kingdom, and
shrewdly guessed to be the most valuable in South Africa,
THE BOERS 63
above all, what was the special experience which had made
them such daring patriots, such intrepid foes, and such
consummate marksmen — on all these points the public
were profoundly ignorant, and, before they had time to
inform themselves, the armistice of the 7 th of March was
succeeded by the cessation of hostilities on the 23rd, and
the Transvaal war had become a thing of the past.
This interesting and neglected chapter of South African
history now claims our attention.
The events which led to the great emigration of 1835-
1838, when 10,000 Dutch farmers left the Cape Colony
and passed into the interior, have already been related,
and a mention of the bare heads under which those events
can be grouped will be sufficient to recall the circumstances.
There were the injudicious measures which accompanied
the Anglicising of the Colony ; there was the indiscreet
interference of the missionaries and the odium cast by the
philanthropic societies in England upon the Dutch popu-
lation at the Cape ; there were the direct and indirect
losses occasioned by the emancipation of slaves ; and,
lastly, there was the reversal by the Imperial Government
of Sir Benjamin Durban's measures for the protection of
the eastern settlers from future Kafir inroads. To these
must be added two subsidiary causes : the depopulation of
large areas in the interior by the murderous wars of Tshaka
and Moselekatse, and the northward flow of the Europeans.
The first of these has been already described, but the
second needs some brief explanation. The northward
expansion of the whites (contrasting with the southward
flow of the Bantu) is as noticeable a feature in South
African colonisation as the eastward expansion is in North
America. It is due to two simple and easily understood
causes : the unproductiveness of the soil and the unpro-
gressiveness of the Boer, or South African farmer. The
joint result of these two causes may be stated to be this : —
each son in a Boer family requires just as much land for
64 SOUTH AFRICA
his support as his father has held before him. This north-
ward expansion commenced at the beginning of the
century. Some European half-castes, uniting with the
Mantatees, produced the Griquas, and this race subse-
quently occupied lands near the confluence of the Vaal
and Orange Rivers. The colonists maintained intercourse
with the Griquas, and early in the century the eastern
graziers, discovering that, owing to the more constant rain-
fall, the pastures were more fertile in these districts than
in the colony, began to make a practice of driving their
cattle across the Orange River at certain seasons of the
year. They had, however, no intention of leaving the
colony ; on the contrary, they returned and paid their
opgaaf, or annual assessed taxes, as regularly as before.
At the time of the emigration, therefore, the eastern
farmers had in this way become acquainted with
part of the country between the Orange and Vaal
Rivers.
The first party of emigrants, one hundred in number,
left the colony in the year 1835. They made their way
to the extreme north-east of the Transvaal. There they
divided into two parties. One of these parties was at-
tacked and almost entirely destroyed by the natives. The
survivors of the other party, after enduring extremes of
famine and fever, reached Delagoa Bay, and eventually
sailed to Natal. In August of the next year (1836) a
party of two hundred emigrants, under Hendrik Potgieter,
crossed the Orange River and reached Thaba N'chu on
the north bank of the River Caledon. Here they were
received willingly enough by a Barolong chief, Maroko ;
and from this point they advanced northwards and formed
encampments on the south bank of the Vaal. Hendrik
Potgieter and a small party of men then crossed the
Vaal, and explored the country further north. On their
return they found that their encampments had been at-
tacked by the Matebeles under Moselekatse, and that
THE BOERS 65
twenty-five European men and women had been murdered.
Potgieter at once went into " laager " * on a suitable hill,
Vecht Kop, and there awaited a fresh onslaught. Be-
hind the waggons the men shot straight and quick, and
their mothers and wives loaded the guns. The Matabele
were repulsed, but they carried off all the emigrants'
sheep and cattle. The party was now in great peril, for
they had no oxen to yoke into their waggons, and
therefore could not retreat. Ultimately they managed
to communicate with Maroko ; and this chief, and Mr
Archbell, a missionary, sent friendly natives with oxen
to their assistance ; and in this manner they were able
to retire to Thaba N'chu.
Meanwhile a larger company, headed by Gert Marritz,
starting from Graaf Reinet, and other companies from
Uitenage and Albany, had crossed the Orange River.
The emigrants were now strong enough to attack Mosele-
katse. A commando of 200 men, under the leadership
of Marritz, crossed the Vaal River, and recovered some
waggons and 7000 head of cattle. At the same time
the position of the emigrants was so perilous that many
of them began to entertain the idea of returning to the
colony. It was just at this crisis that they were joined
by Pieter Retief. Retief was a colonist of Huguenot
extraction. He had held a command under the Colonial
Government, but he had suffered severely from the Kafir
invasion of 1834-5, and he had been censured for some
measures which he took for the restraint of Hottentot
vagrants. So he resolved to throw in his lot with the
emigrants, and sold his property. On Retiefs arrival a
* " These ' laagers,' or camps, were formed by their waggons being
brought up into a square, the poles and waggon gear of one waggon
being firmly secured under the perch of the next waggon ; and when
time admitted branches of the thorny mimosas were also wattled in
under each waggon, so that no entrance could be effected into the
enclosure without forcibly tearing up all these impediments." — Cloete,
iii. p. 77.
B
66 SOUTH AFRICA
government was organised. The emigrants assembled at
Winburg. A constitution was drawn up on June 6th,
1837, and Retief was elected Commandant-General. At
the same time some of the emigrants expressed the
opinion that Natal would be a more suitable country
for settlement than the Orange River district, and Retief
himself favoured the opinion. He determined, how-
ever, before deciding to lead the emigrants across the
Drakensberg, to himself visit Dingan, the Zulu king,
and ascertain whether Dingan would cede Natal. While
he was absent on this mission a second commando, con-
sisting of 135 mounted men and some friendly natives,
was organised by Potgieter and Jacobus Uys. After nine
days' desperate fighting the Matabele were so severely
punished that Moselekatse retired to the north of the
Transvaal, and ultimately crossed the Limpopo. There
he attacked the Mashonas, and after depopulating the
southern portion of their country, settled with his people
in the district now called Matabeleland.
Retief found that Dingan was willing to allow the
emigrant farmers to settle in Natal ; and, early in the
next year (1838), he led a large company across the
Drakensberg. They formed encampments on the Blue
Krans River ; and then Retief, with a party of seventy
Europeans and thirty natives, proceeded to Dingan's
capital, Umkungunhlovu, to arrange for the formal cession
of the country. On the 4th of February a deed of
cession, which had been drawn up in English by a
missionary named Owen, residing there, was read to
Dingan. He expressed himself as satisfied with its terms,
and affixed his mark to it. On the following morning
the emigrants were informed that Dingan wished them
to drink beer in the royal hut before they set out on their
homeward journey. Retief and his companions, having
no suspicion of treachery, left their guns at the entrance
of the hut. When they had entered Dingan suddenly
THE BOERS 67
bade his guards seize them. The whole party were at
once led to the place of execution, and barbarously
murdered. This order was followed by another. Ten
regiments were bidden to advance without delay against
the encampments, and destroy them. The nearest party
of emigrants were murdered — men, women and children
— with the exception of one young man who was herding
cattle at a distance from the waggons. This single sur-
vivor was able to warn the more distant parties, and these
latter were able to go into laager before the Zulus came
upon them. The Zulus were unable to force the laagers,
but they destroyed, or rather massacred, 600 Europeans
and natives before they retired.
Meanwhile Uys had reached the Drakensberg with a
second party, and was preparing to descend into Natal.
Both he and Potgieter collected fighting men, and hastened
to assist the emigrants at the Blue Krans River. Subse-
quently a force of 1500 natives, headed by 17 Englishmen
from Durban, and a commando of 350 farmers, crossed the
Tugela, and attacked Dingan. Both of these forces were
defeated, and Natal was again overrun by the Zulus.
The English settlers * at Durban were forced to take
refuge on board the Comet, a man-of-war which was
fortunately anchored in the bay ; the emigrants defended
themselves successfully behind their waggons. After the
Zulus had again retired, the emigrants remained in a
position of great danger until the month of November,
when they were joined by Andries Pretorius, and a force
of 450 men collected in the Orange River districts.
Pretorius was, like Retief, a man of higher social grade,
and he at once assumed a commanding position among
the emigrants. He had resolved, moreover, to avenge
* Natal was colonised under a concession from Tshaka by English-
men as early as 1825. In 1835 the settlers petitioned that their
settlement at Durban might be called "Victoria," and taken under
the protection of the Imperial Government.
68 SOUTH AFRICA
his people. He crossed the Tugela with the force he
had collected, and advanced carefully, laagering at every
stage, until he arrived at the neighbourhood of Dingan's
capital. Then Dingan let loose all his regiments upon
the farmers' camp. On the evening of the i6th December,
ever afterwards celebrated by the Boers as Dingan's day,
3000 Zulus lay dead outside the waggons, but within
only four men had died of their wounds. Then Dingan
was seized with terror. He set fire to his town, and
retreated to the north. From among the smoking ruins
of Umkungunhlovu Pretorius carried back Retief's skull,
and the actual deed of cession with Dingan's mark upon
it*
When Pretorius returned with these melancholy relics
to his people in Natal, he found that Durban, the port,
had been occupied by a military force under Major
Charters. The emigrants in the interior, however, were
not interfered with by the soldiers, and in the spring
of 1839 Pietermaritzburg, the present capital of Natal,
was laid out by them. In September they were joined
by an important ally. Dingan had quarrelled with Panda,
his half-brother, and this Panda had withdrawn with a
large following, and now offered his services to the emi-
grants. In January of the next year, 1840, Panda ad-
vanced into Zululand, supported by a force of emigrants
under Pretorius. In the battle which followed Dingan was
ultimately but decisively defeated. He fled to the neigh-
bourhood of Delagoa Bay, and was there murdered. On the
14th of February Pretorius issued a proclamation in which
he, as " Commandant-General of the Right Worshipful
Volksraad of the South African Society of Port Natal,"
in the first place declared Panda King of the Zulus in
succession to Dingan ; and, secondly, claimed possession
of the whole of Natal by right of conquest. Just at this
* "This deed was delivered over to me by the Volksraad in 1843, and
is in the archives of the Colonial Office." — Cloete, p. 94.
THE BOERS 69
time the British force, a detachment of the 92nd regiment,
was withdrawn by Sir George Napier, who was then
Governor of the Cape Colony, in pursuance of instruc-
tions received from the Home Government.
Although Sir George Napier declined to make any
formal acknowledgment of the existence of the settlement,
the emigrants had now practically achieved their inde-
pendence. Towards the end of the year 1840, however,
Pretorius committed an act not only of extreme barbarity,
but of extreme folly. He attacked a chief, N'capai by
name, who lived 200 miles from Natal, on the border
of the Cape Colony. Pretorius killed N'capai's people,
captured his cattle, and carried off seventeen young
children into slavery. Sir George Napier then sent a
force of 250 infantry to the Umgazi River, to watch
the movements of the emigrants, and to prevent any
further expeditions against the natives. At the same
time he applied to the Home Government for instructions.
Ultimately the Imperial Government decided to occupy
Natal ; and in pursuance of a despatch, written by the
then Lord Stanley on the 13th December 1842, Mr
Cloete arrived as British Commissioner at Durban on
the I St of May 1843, ^"d a permanent administration
was established. In the years 1846 and 1847, the bulk
of the emigrants withdrew from Natal, some to the Orange
River district and some to the Transvaal. They had
a very simple reason for withdrawing. A land court
had been established, and they were dissatisfied with
the amount of land assigned to the Europeans, both
collectively and individually. They objected to the appor-
tionment of any part of Natal to the Bantu, for they
regarded the whole country as belonging to them by
right of conquest, and at the same time the possession
of a large area of land was, as I have already pointed
out, necessary for the very existence of the Boer.
The subsequent history of the emigrants in the Orange
70 SOUTH AFRICA
River district and beyond the Vaal has already been
related as part of the main stream of South African
history. It will, however, be convenient at this point
to consider in a connected form the main acts and
measures which indicate the varying relationship main-
tained by the Imperial Government to the Boers.
The first military occupation of Durban was made under
a proclamation of Sir George Napier, dated November
14th 1838. The object of that occupation was there
stated to be : — " To put an end to the unwarranted
occupation of the territories belonging to the natives,
by certain emigrants, from the Cape Colony, being sub-
jects of Her Majesty."
The same principle appears in the reply which Sir
George Napier made to the communication of the Volks-
raad of " the South African Society of Port Natal,"
forwarded in January 1841, and containing a request
for an acknowledgment of independence and a com-
mercial treaty. Sir George Napier then said : — " That
Her Majesty could not acknowledge the independence
of her own subjects, but that the trade of the emigrant
farmers would be placed on the same footing as that of
any other British settlement, upon their receiving a
military force to exclude the interference with, or the
possession of, the country by any other European power."
The emigrants on receipt of this communication issued
a fresh declaration of their independence as " Dutch
South Africans." Sir George Napier then announced, by
proclamation of 2nd December 1841, his intention "of
resuming the military occupation of Natal."
Lord Stanley's despatch (already mentioned) contained
definite instructions as to the nature of the administration
which was to be established over the emigrants.
The Commissioner was directed to call the inhabitants
together, and give them an opportunity of stating the
nature of the institutions they required; but legislative
THE BOERS 71
power was not to be conceded as yet. " I think it pro-
bable," Lord Stanley says, " looking to the nature of the
population, that they will desire those institutions to be
founded on the Dutch, rather than on the English model,
and, however little some of those institutions may be
suited to a more advanced state of civilisation, it is the
desire of Her Majesty's government, that in this respect
the contentment of the emigrants, rather than the abstract
merits of the institutions, should guide our decision."
There were, however, certain limitations to this freedom
of selection, i. No distinction or disqualification, founded
on " colour, origin, language, or creed," was to be recog-
nised. 2, No "aggression upon natives beyond the
colony" was to be sanctioned under any plea whatever.
3, Slavery in any shape or form was declared to be
" absolutely unlawful."
It is impossible not to feel that the principle of this
despatch is both just and generous : and any opinion we
may form of the subsequent dealings of the British
Government with the Boers must be largely modified by
the remembrance of the equitable character of these
original proposals, and of the one reason — the greed of
land — which prevented the emigrants from remaining
under the administration so established.
In 1848 British authority was effectively established
over the emigrants in the Orange River districts by Sir
Harry Smith : it was withdrawn when the Free State came
into existence under the Convention of Bloemfontein in
1854. Two years previously the independence of the
emigrants beyond the Vaal was recognised by the Sand
River Convention (1852).
It was undoubtedly the intention of the Imperial
Government to rid itself of any further responsibility by
these conventions. That object was not attained. On
the contrary, when circumstances made it necessary for
England to resume the part of paramount power in South
72 SOUTH AFRICA
Africa, it was found that she had placed herself in a
position of great disadvantage. For these conventions
not only recognised the independence of the emigrant
farmers, but they bound the Imperial Government not
to make any fresh alliances with the native chiefs north
of the Vaal River. Moreover, while the Imperial Govern-
ment agreed to allow the emigrants to obtain arms and
ammunition freely in the British possessions, they pledged
themselves to prevent the natives from procuring fire-arms.*
When the discovery of diamonds had shown that South
Africa was a more valuable possession than had ever been
supposed, England began again to exercise the paramount
rights which had remained dormant for nearly fifteen years.
In 1868 the Imperial Government interfered between the
Free State and the Basutos. At that time the Free State
Government had at last, after four years' fighting, succeeded
in reducing Moshesh to submission. They proposed to
punish him by confiscating a large part of his territory.
The ground on which the Imperial Government interfered
was the belief that the dispersion of the Basutos, which
would result from this action of the Free State, would
endanger the peace of South Africa. In 187 1 British
authority was proclaimed over Griqualand West, a territory
including country north of the Vaal and the diamond
fields — a part of the Orange Free State. The justifica-
tion for this act was the belief that the district which
contained so valuable a possession as the Kimberley
diamond mines ought to be administered by the para-
mount power. And in 1877 the Queen's authority was
established in the Transvaal, on the ground that the
weakness and bankruptcy of the local government con-
stituted, in view of the growing disturbances amongst
the natives, and the organisation of the Zulus under
Ketshwayo, a menace to the supremacy of the Europeans
in South Africa (Note 15).
* Despatch of Sir George Grey, 1858, § 10.
THE BOERS 73
We have now returned to the point in what has
been called the main stream of South African history
from which we diverged to trace the history of the
Transvaal Boers.
When it became evident to the Boer leaders that, in
spite of Mr Gladstone's condemnation of the annexation,
and in spite, too, of the very practical proof of Africander
solidarity which had been afforded by blocking the federa-
tion proposals of the Cape ministry, the Imperial Govern-
ment did not intend to withdraw from the Transvaal, they
resolved to resort to the arbitrament of arms. The affairs
of the community were entrusted to a Triumvirate — Messrs
Kruger, Joubert, and Pretorius ; and on the i6th December
— Dingan's day — the flag of the South African Republic
was floated in the breeze on the desolate uplands of the
Wilwatersrandt.
The successes which attended the insurgents have
already been related.
But now, when, to use an expressive phrase of General
Wood, "the Boer leaders had lit a fire which had got
beyond their control," happily all those parties in whose
control that fire lay hastened to extinguish it.
The Imperial Government poured overwhelming re-
inforcements into South Africa. At the time of the
cessation of hostilities, the 22 nd of March, General Wood
had 10,000 men massed on the slopes of the Drakensberg,
eager to avenge, if need be, the defeats suffered by the
British arms. General Roberts and his staff had arrived
at Capetown, and 10,000 additional troops were on their
way to South Africa. President Brand, of the Free State,
used the whole of his influence on the side of peace, and
he was successful in preventing the Free State, as a state,
from taking part in the quarrel (Note 16). Mr Hofmeyr,
the leader of the Africander party in the Cape Colony,
exhorted the Boer leaders to moderation (Note 17),
General Wood (who had succeeded to the command of
74 SOUTH AFRICA
the troops on the death of General Colley), without
sacrificing a single point in the game of war,* showed
both tact and patience in the very difificult negotiations
which he conducted, and won the confidence of the
insurgent leaders. And so the armistice of the 7 th of
March was followed by the cessation of hostilities on
the 22 nd. The sum of the terms actually offered by
General Wood, and accepted by the Boer leaders, were
these : —
I. A complete amnesty was guaranteed to all the
insurgents, including the leaders, except persons who had
committed acts contrary to the rules of civilised warfare.
2. A commission was to be appointed for the purpose
of restoring the independent Transvaal Government, and
the names of the persons composing this commission were
to be named forthwith. They were Sir Hercules Robinson,
the new Governor of the Cape, Chief Justice de Villiers,
and General Wood himself. It was also stipulated that
President Brand should be present at the meetings of
the commission.
3. Complete self-government under the British
suzerainty was to be granted, at the latest, within six
months from the cessation of hostilities, and under the
terms arranged by the commission (Note 18).
It has been sought to represent the retrocession of the
Transvaal as an act justifiable on grounds other than those of
political expediency. But that is a contention which cannot
be maintained. The retrocession came twelve months too
late. If it was intended that it should rank as an act of
grace, the independence of the Boers should have been
granted in May 1880. If a man asks an alms of us, and
we refuse him ; if he then threatens us with violence, and
we empty our pockets, can we claim to have been actuated
by motives of philanthropy ? But that is not all. It was
wrong, no doubt, to subject a community of 50,000
* Despatch 93, C — 2837.
THE BOERS 75
farmers to an alien government. But was it right to desert
the 10,000 loyahsts in the towns? It was right, no doubt,
to recognise the wishes of the Africander population in
the Cape Colony, being the Queen's subjects, but was it
right to expose the English colonists, also the Queen's
subjects, to the degradation and contempt which they
endured at the hands of their Dutch neighbours during
the years 1881 to 1885 ?
No, the retrocession of the Transvaal must be justified
on the ground of political expediency. But let us under-
stand clearly the nature of this expediency. The Boers
had the whole of Dutch South Africa at their backs :
they emphasised the fact of Africander solidarity by shoot-
ing down 800 English officers and men. It was more
expedient to surrender the Transvaal than to run the
risk of having to subdue the whole Dutch population
in South Africa by force of arms — that is to say, it was
expedient under the then existing political conditions of
South Africa. But how can we justify the course of
action which created those conditions ? In other words,
was the crisis which arose at the end of 1880 one which
could have been neither foreseen nor prevented by the
exercise of reasonable foresight and address on the part
of the Imperial Government ?
Let us look at the information which was placed before
them as to the condition of the Transvaal during the
twelve months which immediately preceded the revolt.
On the 29th of October 1879, Lord Wolseley, who
was then administering the Transvaal, reported to the
Secretary for the colonies, " That he was informed on
all sides that it was the intention of the Boers to fight
for independence," but he also stated that, in his opinion,
the insecurity of the important section of loyalists would
be " an insuperable obstacle to retrogression."
On the 2nd of March 1880, he wrote in justification
of certain energetic measures which he had taken to up-
76 SOUTH AFRICA
hold the Queen's authority * — measures which had been
censured by the Imperial Government — that the object
of the meeting of the Boer leaders in December 1879
was to see how far they "would be suffered to advance
in open repudiation of the Queen's authority " ; that the
tolerance of such proceedings was regarded by the mass
of the Boer population as " sufficient evidence of the
inability of the administration to defend its authority,"
and was " the seal of success upon rebellion." " It
appeared to me," he continues, " to be quite clear that
the longer this false idea of the timid collapse of British
sovereignty was suffered to germinate, the more dangerous
would become the audacity of the leaders and instigators
of the agitation, and the more confirmed and intractable
would be the feelings of the people." f And in his
despatch of July the 6th, 1880, Sir Bartle Frere placed
first among the causes to which was due the refusal of
the Colonial Parliament to pledge itself to the Conference
proposals, the distrust and uncertainty which was felt re-
garding the course of H.M. Government in the Transvaal,
Zululand and Natal. |
I have spoken of the disgrace of Majuba, and I used
the word advisedly ; but the disgrace of Majuba does
not lie in the defeat of the British arms. I believe that
if the special conditions and circumstances of the engage-
ments of the Transvaal Revolt are studied, it will be
found that our soldiers fought with no less than their
accustomed gallantry (Note 19). The disgrace of
Majuba lies in the fact that it was the sign and seal of
the disasters which attend a vacillating policy, an evasion
of responsibilities, and the desertion and abandonment
of a faithful servant.
There are passages in the lives of nations, as in the
* The nrrests of Pretorius and Bok.
t C-2584.
t C— 2655.
THE BOERS 77
lives of individuals, where the office of history is confined
within the narrowest limits. In such passages there is
no room for picturesque description or complacent detail,
still less for the eloquence which is naturally stimulated
by the contemplation of wise counsels or brave deeds.
It remains solely to trace the connection of cause and
effect ; and in proportion as the analysis is accurate and
exact, is the possibility of achieving a useful purpose.
Such a passage is the story of the relationship of Eng-
land to the Boers : and I have endeavoured to relate the
facts with some completeness, for an account of mistakes
and errors, and of the disasters resulting from them, is
only useful when it is so clear that it becomes a means by
which like errors can be avoided in the future.
Well, the Boer has been left in undisturbed possession
of his inheritance in South Africa for fourteen years, and
during that time he has passed from poverty to opulence
— through the exertions of the aliens to whom he denies
the franchise.
Let us do justice to the Boer. Let us acknowledge
the reality of the original grievances which drove him
beyond the hmits of the British jurisdiction ; let us admit
the magnitude of the services which he rendered to South
African civilisation by destroying the murderous power of
Dingan, and driving the Matabele hordes beyond the
Limpopo ; let us forget the occasions on which he lapsed
into the inferior morality of the previous century in his
treatment of the natives ; let us freely admire the deter-
mination and the intrepidity which he displayed in defence
of his independence.
We may do all this and still feel that something is
wanting to justify him in the occupation of the fairest
districts of settled South Africa. He has won his
promised land from the heathen. It is exceedingly im-
probable that he will ever be disturbed again in the posses-
sion of this inheritance by any external force. But he has
78 SOUTH AFRICA
still to justify his possession of these ample pastures,
these rich and fertile valleys, and these stores of gold
and of coal.
If he can enlarge his mind, if he can reform existing
abuses, if he can expand an archaic system of government
and render it sufficiently elastic to meet the requirements
of an enlarged population and important and increasing
industries — well and good. If not, let the Boer beware :
for he will place himself in conflict with the intelligence
and progress of South Africa.
Then the Boer system will be condemned by a higher
authority than the Colonial Office or the opinion of
England ; and from the high court of nature — a court
from which no appeal lies — the inexorable decree will go
forth — " Cut it down ; why cumbereth it the ground ? "
CHAPTER V.
Natal and the Kafir Problem.
T^HE gain which has been achieved by humanity during
-*■ the present century has invited criticism by its very
magnitude. Matthew Arnold and Ruskin have told us,
each in his own characteristic manner, that a material
gain may be a spiritual loss. Mr William Morris, as
the social reformer — not " the idle singer of an empty
day " — has attacked the dearest doctrine of economic
science, and declared that " division of labour " is wage-
saving not labour-s?iV\r\g. Henry George has warned us
that the progress of the few may bring poverty to the
many, and that while the rich are getting richer, the poor
are getting poorer.
To these weighty indictments against the age of progress,
the late Mr Pearson has added his gloomy forecast.
This new criticism is no longer confined to a single
society, or to some one aspect of contemporary life. Its
contentions are supported by observations covering the
whole range of political and social movement throughout
the world ; and the doom which is here pronounced is
not that of a single community but of civilisation in
general.
In spite, however, of the persistency with which the
prophets of the age have warned societies and individuals
against any unreasoning hopes of the future, certain ideals
have hitherto survived. Among them the most captivating,
and perhaps the most practical, is a belief on the part of
the various members of the Anglo-Saxon family that their
79
8o SOUTH AFRICA
race is destined to spread civilisation throughout the
world. It is on this ideal of a beneficent and imperial
mission that Mr Pearson's criticism falls most heavily.
For, if it be true that the coloured races, protected and
assisted by European civilisation, will rapidly increase in
population, and ultimately circumscribe and paralyse the
white races, we Englishmen, the conquerors and admin-
istrators of India, beyond all others are "the blind
instruments of fate for multiplying the races that are now
our subjects, and will one day be our rivals." *
Natal is a case in point.
But before we proceed to discuss this aspect — the
aspect which appears the most characteristic and stimu-
lating of the life of Natal — we must first consider those
broad necessary facts which will enable us to form a
general notion of the colony as a whole.
The most important events in the early history of Natal
have already been mentioned. To these events — told
incidentally as forming part of general South African
history — only one or two fresh facts need be added.
The basis of the English population was laid during the
years 1848-51, when immigrants, to the number of nearly
4000, arrived in the colony, attracted thither by the
representations of a Mr Byrne, an English gentleman
who had visited the country in 1843, the year in which
a British administration was first permanently established.
For three years, 1845-48, Natal was governed as a depend-
ency of the Cape Colony. It was then erected into
a separate colony, governed by a Lieutenant-Governor and
an executive council. In 1855, after the visit of Sir
George Grey, a legislative council was established. In
1866 representative members were admitted to this council.
In 1873 the Hlubi trouble, to which reference has already
been made,! arose, and in consequence of the facts dis-
* " National Life and Character," p. 83.
t Chap. iii. p. 48.
NATAL AND THE KAFIR PROBLEM 8i
closed by this incident, Lord Wolseley was sent out as
special commissioner, to enquire into the relations exist-
ing between the Natal government and the natives. As
a result of the enquiries then made, certain reforms were
introduced into the system of native administration by
Sir Henry Bulwer, who became Governor of Natal, on
the departure of Lord Wolseley, in August 1875. The
progress of the colony was disastrously affected by the
Zulu and Transvaal wars ; but, since that time — since
1 88 1 — Natal has rapidly advanced in prosperity; and in
1893 responsible government was established.
Under the present constitution there is a Legislative
Council, of eleven members, nominated by the Governor-
in-Council and holding their seats for ten years, and a
Legislative Assembly of thirty-seven members, elected by
the various constituencies for four years. Under the very
special circumstances of Natal the Imperial government
have thought fit to make a reservation in conferring
parliamentary government upon the colonists. The
Governor is empowered to designate not more than six
offices "political" offices, and to reserve these for "crown"
appointment. Provision is also made for the application
of a due proportion of the colonial revenue to the payment
of the salary of the Governor, and of the salaries of these
political officers, and to native education.
The Natal franchise is liberal. A European is entitled
to vote for members of the Assembly if he possesses real
property of the value of i£s°y o"^ occupies such property
at an annual rental of not less than ^10; or if he is in
receipt of an annual income of ^96 or upwards. In both
cases he must also have resided in the colony for three
years. The natives, too, are admitted to political privileges;
but in their case a time of probation is required. A native
is entitled to vote if, in addition to possessing one or other
of these qualifications, he has lived for seven years exempt
from the action of the special native laws ; that is to say,
F
82 SOUTH AFRICA
if he has become, to all intents and purposes, a civilised
being.
The area of Natal is rather more than twenty thousand
square miles (20,460), or a good deal less than half that
of England without Wales and Scotland. The country
falls into three natural divisions. There is a coast belt,
extending for eight or nine miles inland, where the
temperature is raised by the warm Mozambique channel
which flows past the coast, and where sugar, tea, arrow-
root, and other tropical products are raised. Then,
passing inland and westwards, there are the midlands,
where the country rises from 900 feet above sea level to
3000 feet. Here horned cattle are depastured, and maize
— but not corn — is grown. And, lastly, there are the
uplands, rising from 3000 feet in elevation to 5000 feet,
where they spring into the Drakensberg. This is where
the sheep farms are ; and, in the north, there is a great
coal-field, estimated at 2000 square miles in extent, where
coal is raised in considerable and increasing quantities.
The population of Natal we may take to be in round
numbers 600,000 (588,576). Of this total 45,000
persons are Europeans, 40,000 are coolies or Indian
immigrants, and 500,000 are Kafirs. The European
population is in the main concentrated in the two towns,
Durban, the port, and Maritzburg, forty-five miles inland,
the seat of Government.
The volume of annual trade passing through Durban
is four and a half millions.* Of this amount rather more
than three millions (;^3,2 12,259) represents imports, and
* The figures in the text are for 1892, and are taken from the
"Statistical Abstract" for the Colonics, &c. (C — 7144), published in
1893. Later returns show a diminution of about a million in the volume
of tiade, due mainly to the diversion of the transit trade from Durban,
owing to the establishment of better railway communication from other
ports to the O. F. State and the Transvaal. As, however, the Natal
railway has been extended to Johannesburg and Pretoria in September
1895, I leave the '92 returns as most representative.
NATAL AND THE KAFIR PROBLEM 83
a million and a half (^1,535,903) exports. But pro-
bably only two-thirds of the imports, and less than a half
of the exports, belong to Natal. In order to understand
the significance of these figures, we will compare the trade
of Natal with that of New Zealand. I say New Zealand,
because the total of the population of New Zealand is nearly
the same as that of Natal, while the numerical relationship
between the Europeans and the natives is almost exactly
reversed, for in New Zealand we have a small (45,000)
and dwindling population of Maories in the midst of
Europeans. The volume of the New Zealand trade
reaches over sixteen millions, of Avhich nine and a half
millions (p^9, 534,851) are exports, and seven millions
(.^6,943,056) imports. The native, therefore, both con-
sumes and produces very much less than the European.
In the Natal exports the chief items are the wool export,
^^583, 385, of which part only is produced in Natal, and
the sugar export, ;j^ 11 9, 461, which is exclusively Natal
produce. And to these figures we must add the fact that,
in 1892, 141,000 tons of coal were raised in the colony.
Of this amount three-fourths (117,000 tons) came from
the collieries of a single company, the Dundee Coal
Company, which only commenced work in 1890.
Now as to the employment of the Europeans. Of the
13,000 adult males, more than one-half are artisans and
mechanics. The remainder are chiefly distributed among
the farmers who raise the wool, the planters who grow
the sugar, the officials and professional men who, in
addition to conducting the general affairs of the colony,
control the native population, and the agents and middle-
men who forward the goods received at the port, Durban.
For Durban serves not only Natal, but the south-eastern
corner of the Transvaal, the eastern corner of the Free
State, and the native territories lying north and south of
the colony. This inland or " overberg " trade requires
the services of these agents, and provides employment
84 SOUTH AFRICA
for a commercial class quite out of proportion to the
actual trade of Natal. The existence of this forwarding
trade has benefited the colony in two ways. It has
made the creation of a complete and relatively extensive
railway system necessary and possible ; and it has caused
the colonists to spend both energy and capital in improving
the port. The harbour of Durban consists of a land-locked
stretch of water enclosed between the Bluff promontory
and the town. Across the entrance, the Bluff Channel,
there runs a bar of sand which prevents vessels of deep
draught from reaching the secure waters of the harbour.
Between the years 1854 and 1881 the average depth of
water over the bar was 6 feet 5 inches. By various
harbour works 7 feet 7 inches have been gained, and
the maximum draught registered in 1892 was 19 feet 9
inches — a depth which will admit all but the largest
class of ocean-going steamers.
I need only speak at length of one of the Natal
industries — the sugar industry ; for the South African wool
export will be discussed in a subsequent chapter, and
the collieries do not, of course, present any characteristic
features. In this industry some eight hundred pounds
sterling (;£8so,^oo) is invested. There are 26,000 acres
under crop, and of this area half is reaped annually.
There are thirty-six factories, and in the year 1 891-1892 the
output of sugar amounted to 15,000 tons. The planta-
tions are worked by some 6000 coolies, and a small
number of Kafirs. This fact — the fact that the planters
have to go to India for their labour when they have a
large mass of unemployed Kafirs at their doors — is the
most significant feature of the sugar industry. It appears
that the Natal Kafirs cannot be induced to submit to the
restraints of regular employment. The whole question of
Indian immigration was carefully considered by a com-
mission which sat from 1885 to 1S87 ; and it was then found
that it was impossible to dispense with Indian immigration
NATAL AND THE KAFIR PROBLEM 85
without ruining the industry. This was felt to be too
heavy a sacrifice, so the planters continue to bring over
coolies from India under contracts for three years' service.
The immigrants appear to be exposed to no hardships ;
on the contrary, many of them settle in Natal after their
contracts have expired, and a good deal of the retail trade
of the colony has passed into their hands. The com-
mencement of coal mining has benefited the sugar industry,
for the cheap supply of fuel allows the planters generally
to avail themselves of the diffusion process for the extraction
of the juice of the sugar-cane. By this process the juice
is first dissolved out of the cane by hot water, and then
the liquid so obtained is solidified by evaporation. Both
of these treatments require a large expenditure of fuel,
and therefore the fact that coal can now be obtained
at 2 IS. 6d. the ton at Durban, has obviously an important
bearing upon the prospects of the industry.
Now we are free to approach the subject of the govern-
ment and administration of the Kafirs.
The physical basis upon which the Natal Government
rests consists of (i) a garrison of the Imperial troops, in
number from 1000 to 1500 men ; (2) the Natal Mounted
PoHce, a small permanent colonial force with a commandant,
eight oflicers, and 280 men ; and (3) the volunteers. This
latter force amounts to a total of all arms — mounted rifles,
artillery, infantry, and a coast corps — nearly two thousand
(1835) strong.
Every native who is responsible for a hut is required to
pay an annual hut-tax of 14s., and by means of this charge
— a charge which is very cheerfully borne — the Kafirs are
themselves made to pay for the expenses of administration.
The Letters Patent issued in 1848, by which Natal was
created a separate territory, directed that there should be
" neither interference with, nor abrogation of, any law,
custom, or usage " prevailing among the natives, except so far
as these might be " repugnant to the general principles of
86 SOUTH AFRICA
humanity recognised throughout the w h jle world." We may
compare this proviso with the corresponding proviso in the
Constitution Act of an ordinary British colony. By such
Imperial Acts a Colonial Legislature is empowered to make
laws, and these laws are declared to be valid, except so far as
they are " repugnant to the law of England." In the follow-
ing year, 1849, the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal was created
by ordinance " Supreme Chief " of all the natives within the
colony, and empowered to adminster native law through
such persons as he thought fit to appoint for that purpose.
In Natal, therefore, the tribal organisation has been
preserved instead of being broken up, as we saw was done
in the Cape Colony under the policy initiated by Sir George
Grey ; and the authority of the chiefs has been utilised for
the purposes of government. At the present time the
administration of justice is effected by means of three kinds
of courts — those presided over by European magistrates,
chiefs' courts, and mixed tribunals. In these latter cases
between Europeans and natives are heard, and European
magistrates and chiefs sit side by side. In all these courts
Kafir law and custom, as modified by the Colonial Statutes,
are recognised. The Natal Laws also include a number of
statutes intended merely to preserve order among the
natives. Such laws are of two kinds — those which regulate
the relationship between the Europeans and natives, e.g.
such laws as those which forbid the sale of intoxicating
liquors, or of firearms, by a European to a native, under
very severe penalties, and a class of laws which deal with
what may be called special police regulations applicable to
the natives only. These latter cover such matters as
" passes," or the written permission which a native is
required to procure from a magistrate before he changes
his residence ; the curfew, or the nine o'clock bell, after
which the Kafirs retire to their huts in Maritzburg and
Durban ; and the registration of firearms.
The system resembles that of India rather than that of
NATAL AND THE KAFIR PROBLEM 87
the Cape Colony. The natives have been left practically to
themselves : — not altogether, because there are now a small
number (73) of native schools at work; but this effort is
too slight to produce any effect as yet upon the solid mass
of Kafirdom against which it is directed. Considered only
as a means of governitig the natives, the Natal administra-
tion has been successful, for, with the exception of the Hlubi
trouble, there has been no serious outbreak among the
Kafirs since Natal was constituted a separate government.
But now, in the view of the experience of the last ten years,
in view, that is to say, of the very rapid growth of the Kafir
population in the colony, the question is being raised whether
it is enough merely to govern without civilising. This
question constitutes what I have termed the " problem " of
Natal.
We will take the figures as Mr Pearson gives them. In
1863 the European element constituted one-seventh of
the population of the colony, in 189 1 it constituted only
one-twelfth ; and again, in 1879, the year in which the Zulu
war broke out, there were 319,934 Kafirs in Natal, in
1 89 1 there were 455,983 (Note 20).
Making due allowance for the undoubted fact that this
increase is very largely due to immigration, the figures are
still sufficiently significant. And what applies to Natal
applies also to South Africa generally.
Let us take the fact of the Bantu increase as Mr Theal
states it :
"That the Bantu population in South Africa from the
Limpopo to the sea has trebled itself by natural increase
alone within fifty years, is asserting what must be far below
the real rate of growth." *
The chief causes of this rapid increase are disclosed by
a very interesting enquiry initiated by the Native Depart-
ment of the Cape Government in 1855. A circular con-
taining a series of questions was distributed among the
* Appendix to " The Republics " (" History of South Africa ").
88 SOUTH AFRICA
magistrates, missionaries, and traders. The collective
evidence of these authorities attributes the increase to the
" controlling power of the civilised Governments " which
has removed certain ancient checks on population, such as
tribal wars and feuds, and executions on charge of witchcraft,
and lessened the action of others, such as " ignorance of
medicine " and " uncertainty of food supplies." At the
same time, most of these authorities are of opinion that the
present rate of increase will not be maintained in the
future. They indicate that already certain new checks are
coming into operation. The most important of these new
checks are : —
(a) The rapid limitation of the food supply which can
be produced by the primitive methods of cultivation
practised by the Kalirs, and
(d) The adoption of European dress and manners. This
last introduces a higher standard of comfort, a recognised
check on indiscriminate reproduction ; and also appears to
slightly deteriorate the physique of the South African native.
Still, there is no doubt that the Bantu are increasing
very rapidly in South Africa ; and the broad fact remains,
that in South Africa the Europeans must be prepared to
share the country with the coloured races, instead of
exclusively occupying it as they have done in North
America and Australia.
And if this is so, the question of native education
becomes especially important.
What, then, is being done in South Africa to educate
the native, to make him a civilised being, to fit him, in
short, for this partnership with the European? As I
have already said, in Natal there has been no serious
effort made in this direction. No effort has been made
in the Native Territories, nor in the Republics. Experi-
ence shows that, in order to produce any permanent
results, two conditions are necessary. There must be
an efficient machinery for educating the young, and there
NATAL AND THE KAFIR PROBLEM 89
must be a sufficient European background to prevent
the civilised native from falling back into barbarism.
The only part of South Africa where these conditions
are at all realised as yet are some districts of the Cape
Colony. It is to the Cape Colony, therefore, that we
must go, if we would learn what has been already achieved
in this direction, and what results may be expected in
the future.
In the Cape Colony an extensive and efficient machinery
for native education has been at work for many years past.
From a report of the Superintendent-General of Education
(Sir Langham Dale), published in 1883, we learn that,
in the preceding year there were 396 mission schools
with an attendance of 44,307 ; 226 aborigines' day schools
with an attendance of 13,817, and 21 boarding and trade
schools with 2519 pupils. It should also be added that
about one-third of the Annual Education Grant (amount-
ing in 1889 to ;^85,ooo) is appropriated to the purposes
of native education.
Of all these native schools and institutions, Lovedale
is the most remarkable ; and a record of the work done
at Lovedale will give some insight into both the methods
pursued and the results attained by the native educator.
In the same report it is stated that there were 300
pupils at Lovedale, and that the yearly turnover was
;^i 5,000, There is a college department in which native
clergy and teachers are trained ; there are workshops where
young men are taught bookbinding, printing, and smiths'
and carpenters' work, and where young women are taught
sewing and laundress work ; and there is an elementary
school for boys and girls. As evidence of the reality of
the trade instruction given at Lovedale, the fact is re-
corded that the work of thirty-five apprentices for one year
realised the sum of ;^2 2oo.
Writing on the general question of native education
— a question which has been warmly debated at the Cape
90 SOUTH AFRICA
■ — the Superintendent-General of Education says, in a
supplementary report issued in the following year, that
the supporters of native education " appeal to such facts
as the large interchange among natives of letters passing
through the post-office ; of the utilisation of educated
natives as carriers of letters, telegrams, and parcels ; of
the hundreds who fill responsible posts as clerks, inter-
preters, school-masters, sewing-mistresses, and of the still
larger number engaged in industrial pursuits, as carpenters,
blacksmiths, tinsmiths, wagon-makers, shoemakers, printers,
sail makers, saddlers, etc., earning good wages, and helping
to spread civilisation among their own people." Among
the opponents of native education he finds "conflicting
opinions." " On the one hand," he says, " the schools
are abused as worthless, and educated natives decried ;
on the other hand, I find it affirmed that the aborigines
are getting a better education than the white people, and
that the native apprentices from the trade schools become
successful rivals in industrial employments."
To clench the argument I have made some extracts
from the South African Circular issued by the Emi-
grants' Information Office in October 1894. After saying
that the bulk of the labour employed, both in agriculture
and in mining, is supplied by the natives, the Circular
continues, under the heading " Mechanics " —
" It should be remembered that large numbers of
Malays and other coloured men, in all parts of Cape
Colony, now compete with whites as skilled mechanics
at lower wages.
" Nearly all the reports received (from various com-
mercial centres) state either that none but natives are em-
ployed, or, that ... if Europeans are employed . . .
the supply is sufficient.
"In the Transkei Europeans receive los. to 15s. a day,
but they are rarely employed ..."
This is very practical and conclusive evidence of the
value of native education at the Cape.
NATAL AND THE KAFIR PROBLEM 91
We will now enlarge the area of our observations once
again, and pass from a consideration of the growth of the
Bantu population to the wider question of the ultimate
numerical relationship between the higher and lower races
raised by the late Mr Pearson, who was for many years
Minister of Education in Victoria, in his work entitled
"National Life and Character : a Forecast."
Mr Pearson's forecast depends upon two main proposi-
tions.
1. The lower races will in the future increase at so
disproportionate a rate (as compared with the white popula-
tions) as ultimately to predominate over the higher races.
2. The stationary condition of society to which the
higher races are to be thus reduced will involve a general
deterioration of national life and character.
The arguments by which Mr Pearson seeks to establish
the first of these two propositions are contained in the
chapter on "The Unchangeable Limits of the Higher Races."
He points out that, with the exception of small acquisitions,
such as that of the Mediterranean seaboard of Africa by
France, and of Western Turkestan by Russia, the white
races are not likely to add any considerable territories
to those which they already occupy. From the evidence
collected on this head Mr Pearson concludes that " by
far the most fertile parts of the earth, and [those] which
either are or are bound to be the most populous," cannot
possibly be the homes of any of the higher races. Mean-
while the dense yellow populations of China, India, Japan,
and the Malay Archipelago, the black populations of
Central and Southern Africa, the negroes of the United
States, and the Indians of Central and South America,
are bound to multiply with an ever-increasing rapidity.
And thus, in Mr Pearson's words —
" The day will come, and perhaps is not far distant,
when the European observer will look round to see the
globe girdled with a continuous zone of the black and
92 SOUTH AFRICA
yellow races, no longer too weak for aggression or under
tutelage, but independent, or practically so, in Govern-
ment, monopolising the trade of their own regions, and
circumscribing the industry of the European ; when
Chinamen and the nations of Hindustan, the States of
Central and South America, by that time predominantly
Indian, and it may be the African nations of the Congo
and the Zambesi, under a dominant caste of foreign
rulers, are represented by fleets in the European seas,
invited to international conferences, and welcomed as
allies in the quarrels of the civilised world. The citizens
of these countries will then be taken up into the social
relations of the white races, will throng the English turf,
or the salons of Paris, and will be admitted to inter-
marriage . . . We shall wake up to find ourselves elbowed
and hustled, and perhaps even thrust aside by peoples
whom we looked down upon as servile, and thought of
as bound always to minister to our needs." *
In order to get a definite notion of the nature of the
change which is here predicted, it is necessary to form
some idea (approximately correct) of the relative numbers
of the higher and lower races, and of the manner in which
they are respectively distributed over the surface of the
globe. Mr Pearson himself subsequently states the ratio
between the white and coloured populations to be as one
to two. Assuming that this is so, let us suppose Europe,
North America, and Australia to belong exclusively to
the 400,000,000 Europeans in and out of Europe, and
Asia, Africa, and South America similarly to the
800,000,000 Chinese, Hindus, Africans, and Indians,
which form the bulk of the population of these continents.
In this way we get 400,000,000 of whites occupying
15,000,000 square miles, as opposed to 800,000,000 of
coloured people occupying 35,000,000 square miles of
the earth's surface. This calculation omits to take account
* P. 84.
NATAL AND THE KAFIR PROBLEM 93
of 2,000,000 square miles, and 200,000,000 people ;
but as both areas and populations would be fairly evenly
divided among the higher and lower races, the omission
does not affect the argument.
As the population of South America is too small to
have any immediate significance, it is in China, in India,
and in Central Africa that we may expect the first signs
of the disproportionate increase which is to reverse the
present relationship of the higher and lower races.
Our knowledge of the population of China is eminently
unsatisfactory. But in the absence of definite information,
there are two considerations which are valuable as tending
to mitigate the alarm caused by the migratory tendencies
lately developed by the most populous nation in the
world. In the first place, by far the greater portion of
its 400,000,000 * inhabitants are confined to China
proper, that is to say, to an area one-third only of the
four and a half million square miles of the empire, and
equal to India. Assuming, therefore, that the oppor-
tunities of expansion permitted to the Chinese by the
remaining three million square miles of sparsely peopled
territory are not more than equivalent to the sanitary
and other advantages of British administration enjoyed
by the people of India, we may conclude that the rate of
increase in China is not likely to exceed that in India.
Accordingly, if we find that the increase of population in
India does not at present indicate any such expansion as
Mr Pearson's forecast requires, we may, in the absence of
any positive evidence to the contrary, conclude as much
with regard to China. In the second place, China has
already been brought face to face with Russia, f Con-
* Generally stated now as 350,000,000.
t " It is Russia who threatens her frontiers in Chinese Turkestan
and on the Pamirs ; Russia who is always nibblins;, in scientific
disguise, at Tibet ; Russia who has designs in Manchuria ; Russia
whose shadow overhangs Korea ; Russia who is building a great
trans-continental railway that will enable her to pour troops into
94 SOUTH AFRICA
tinued development, therefore, will bring the Chinese
increasingly into collision with a state which is, perhaps,
the most powerful military state in the world, and one
whose population has increased by natural increment
during the last hundred years at the rate of more than
200 per cent.*
With India the case is, happily, different. Here we
have census returns which reveal the movement of
population with increasing fidelity. The census for
1 89 1 shows that the entire population under both
British and feudatory rule now reaches a total of over
284,000,000, having increased during the decade 1881-
91 at 1 2 "36 per cent. The population of British India,
however, now numbering 220,000,000, has increased
(deducting the increment due to the acquisition of fresh
territories) at the lesser rate of 9I per cent. The
apparently more rapid increase in the native, as compared
with the British territories, is referred by the Census
Commissioner to the receipt of more faithful returns,
arising partly from a better disposition in the natives,
and partly to the fact that many of these feudatory
states are now more directly under British control than
they have been previously.! We may therefore fairly
conclude that 9I per cent, represents the rate at which
the Indian peoples have increased by natural increment
during the last decade. If we compare this 9^ per cent.
with the 1 3*98 per cent.J of natural increase in England,
and the 14*40 per cent, of natural, and 24*86 per cent.
of actual increase in the United States § — to say nothing
China at any point along 3500 miles of continuous border." — "China
in relation to the Powers," Times, February loih, 1893. The fact that
Russia is the natural rival of China (and of the yellow races) is em-
phasised by the results of the war between China and Japan.
* GifTen, in Statistical Society s Journal, June 1885, p. 103.
t Preliminary Report by Mr J. A. Baines, Census Commissioner to
the Government of India.
X Preliminary Report, etc., of the Census (England and Wales), 1891.
§ Statesman's "Year-Book," p. 1069.
NATAL AND THE KAFIR PROBLEM
95
of even higher rates reached in Austraha — we can scarcely
avoid the conclusion that India, at any rate, affords but
slight confirmation of Mr Pearson's contention.
Apart from the evidence I have already mentioned as
indicating that a new set of checks are in operation which
will prevent the Bantu race in South Africa from increasing
in the future at the present abnormal rate, we can form
some estimate of the probable rate of increase of the
Central African generally from the progress of the race in
the United States. Even here the census returns are not
altogether reliable. In 1870 in particular the numbers of
the blacks were so much understated as to produce an
apparent rate of increase for the decade 1870-80 so high
as justly to cause serious apprehension. But an examin-
ation of the decennial returns for the century 1 790-1 890
indicates that, so far from the black race increasing in an
ascending ratio relatively to the white, the proportion of
negroes to Europeans is appreciably less now than it was
a hundred years ago.
Table showing comparative growth of the White
AND Coloured Population in the United States.*
Popu
ation.
Number of
Per cent.
jf Increase.
Years.
coloured to
White.
Coloured.
100,000 white.
White.
Coloured.
1790
1,271,488
689,884
54,258
...
1800
1,702,980
918,336
53,925
33 '94
33""
181O
2,208,785
1,272,119
57,594
2970
38-52
1820
2,831,560
1,653.240
58.386
28*20
29-96
1830
3,660,758
2,187.545
59.757
29-28
32-32
1840
4,632.530
2,701,901
58.325
26-55
23-51
1850
6,222,418
3.442,238
55.320
34-32
27-40
i860
8,203,852
4,216,241
51,393
31-84
22-49
1870
9,812,732
4,555,990
46,429
19-61
8-06
1880
13,530,408
6,142,360
45,397
37-89
34-82
1890
16,868,205
6,996, 166
41,475
24-67
13-90
* The United States " Census Bulletin," No. 48, March 27th, 1891.
96 SOUTH AFRICA
In connection with this table it is necessary to point out
that (i), the States included in the enumeration contain
fifteen-sixteenths of the total coloured population ; and,
(2), the number of immigrants from Europe or from the
northern States of the Union is so small as not to appreci-
ably affect the rate of increase of the whites. This
calculation is the more significant from the fact that it
comes from a country where the negro race is already in
the enjoyment of those advantages of European adminis-
tration which Mr Pearson thinks would, if extended to the
race in Central Africa, produce a disastrous and dispro-
portionate increase. *
In his concluding pages Mr Pearson invites his readers
to think of civilised society under the figure of an old
man, " with his intellect keen, with his experience bitter,
with his appetites unsatiated, with the memory of past
enjoyment stinging him."
Society is " doomed to live on into the ages, with all
that the best ordered polity can secure it, with all in-
herited treasures of beauty, with a faith in science that
is perpetually mocked by weaker and weaker results,
and with no spiritual sense to understand what surrounds
it, with the mind's vision growing dim, with the appre-
hension of art dwarfed to taking comfort in bric-a-brac,
with no hope or suggestion of sight beyond the grave. . . " f
It is a more hopeful and a more just thought to present
the Anglo-Saxon race to the mind under the figure of a
youth.
During the last hundred years not only has the popula-
tion of Europe risen from 145,000,000 in 1788 to
* The general conclusion, based upon returns for a hundred years
(given above), does not differ materially from Mr Pearson's conclusion
as stated in Appendix ii., p. 348 : — " Assuming the facts of the last
census to be unimpeachable, it seems to result that whites and blacks
increase in nearly the same ratio." But this is obviously insufficient
for the purposes of his contention.
+ P. 337.
NATAL AND THE KAFIR PROBLEM 97
350,000,000 in 1888, but during the same period the
European population out of Europe has grown at a far
more rapid rate, increasing from 5,000,000 to 70,000,000.
To this remarkable increase the Anglo-Saxon people have
been by far the largest contributors; and Dr Giffen estimates*
that, "in another century, at the past rate of progress,
there will be nearly 1,000,000,000 of this race alone
in the world." If, therefore, the growth of population
in Europe should be checked, either by the operation of
war, or by mere stagnation such as we see in France,
it is to the Anglo-Saxon settlements in America, Australia
and South Africa that we must look to maintain the pre-
dominance of the white races in the world.
It is then that the citizens of America, Australia and
South Africa will justify their occupation of these con-
tinents. The European traveller will no longer scrutinise
their title deeds, or contrast the broad unfinished streets
and the wildernesses of corrugated-iron sheds and shanties
in their growing towns with the splendours of the historic
capitals of Europe, or compare their arid and unfertilised
plains with the soft luxuriance and settled beauty of an
old world landscape. Even the harsh tone of colonial
life will have been forgotten. Or rather, it will then be
seen that for these and other deficiencies there is a large
and generous compensation. For it is the sense of youth
permeating the hfe of these new communities that causes
that unreasonable — as it seems — complacency with condi-
tions of existence so palpably defective, and that irritation
at the application of any old world test, which seems to
characterise Americans and Australians.
And yet this complacency is not so unreasonable after
all. For what man of mature years would not exchange
his great possessions, or high position, for the thirty, or
twenty, or even ten years of vigorous action with its
glittering possibilities that a young man, untrained and
* Journal of the Statistical Society^ ]\xxiQ 1S85, p. loi.
G
98 SOUTH AFRICA
untried, inferior to the other in all else but this boon of
youth, alone possesses ? So it is with our greater England :
it is instinct with the energy of anticipated existence, and
the torch of life which is delivered into its hands burns
ever brighter and stronger with the flames of Science
Industry, Peace and Justice.
CHAPTER VI,
The Bechuanaland Settlement.
'T^HE original possessors of the soil of South Africa
"'■ were not the dark-skinned people, the Bantu,
whom we have been led by unhappy associations to
regard as the " natives," but a yellow-skinned race,
differing in little but their woolly hair from the Chinese
and the Malays. At the time of Van Riebeck's expedi-
tion— in 1652 — they had already deeply degraded in the
scale of civilisation. To-day their descendants, the 50,000
or 60,000 Hottentots, Bushmen, Namaquas and Korannas,
have no political or social importance.
With the dark-skinned race, the Bantu, who occupied
the southern extremity of Africa contemporaneously with
the Europeans, the case is very different. They out-
number the Europeans in the proportion of six to one ;
and they have plainly signified their intention of sharing
the country with them.
Hitherto we have been mainly concerned with the
warlike tribes of this family, the Kafirs, the Zulus, and
the Matabele Zulus ; we have now to consider the re-
lations of the Europeans with one of the peaceable tribes,
the Bechuanas.
The distribution of the mihtary and industrial Bantu
is significant. The military Bantu are found in possession
of the most fertile regions. They are found between
the Drakensberg mountains and the Indian Ocean, and
in the fertile districts to the north-west — the Zoutpans-
berg — and to the south of the range — Kaffraria. The
99
loo SOUTH AFRICA
industrial Bantu are found clinging to the mountains
as in Basutoland, or scattered over the high plateau
which forms the greater part of the Free State and
the Transvaal, or on the confines of the Kalahari desert,
or on those of the deserts and karoos south of the
Orange River, The desert was their ultimate retreat
when they were compelled to retire before their more
warlike kinsmen.
The military and industrial Bantu differ in their tribal
organisation, in their dwellings, and in their pursuits.
They are both armed with the same weapon, the assegai *
or spear ; but the assegai of the military Bantu is short-
handled and broad-bladed. It is not thrown away, but
used for fighting at close quarters. The manner in which
the assegai is used, and the general method of the attack
of the warlike tribes, are well described by Pringle in his
poem " Mokanna's Gathering " :
" Grasp each man short his stabbing spear,
And when to battle's edge we come,
Rush on their ranks in full career,
And to their hearts strike home."
More than one disaster inflicted upon the British troops
has borne witness to the terrible effect of this "rush."
The assegai of the industrial Bantu is long in the shaft
and light in the blade; it is used as a javeHn, and is
intended mainly for the purposes of the chase. Among
the military Bantu the chief is a despot against whose
word there is no appeal : among the industrial Bantu
the power of the chief is limited ; first, by the council
of lesser chiefs — his brothers, as he calls them — and,
secondly, by the pitso, or general assemblage of the
freemen of the tribe. The town of the military Bantu
is designed solely with a view to defence. The chiefs
hut and the cattle pens are placed in the centre, and
around these the remaining huts are built in concentric
• From hasta through the Portuguese.
THE BECHUANALAND SETTLEMENT loi
circles. The town of the industrial Bantu is open ; that
is to say, it is intended to serve the requirements of a
peaceable people. Again they differ in their respective
pursuits. The sole business of the military tribes was
warfare ; they planted just so much corn, and raised just so
many cattle as would provide for their immediate wants.
Outside the town of the industrial Bantu we find plots of
garden ground cultivated, and they are acquainted with
the art of smelting ore and working in iron.
The chief seats of the industrial tribes are Bechuanaland
and Basutoland. Of these the former, Bechuanaland, is
interesting to Englishmen as being the scene of the
labours of some of our most famous missionaries, Robert
Moffat, David Livingstone, and Mr John Mackenzie. It
is politically important, because this region, inhabited by
peaceable tribes was, and is, the trade route from the
Cape Colony to Central Africa. For a long time it was
the only door into the interior of Africa, and this door
would have been permanently closed by the Boers except
for the interposition of the broad shoulders of a single
Englishman, Livingstone. After his house had been
plundered by a Boer commando towards the end of
1852 — the year of the Sand River Convention — Living-
stone turned from his missionary labours to the work
of exploration. In his own words — " The Boers resolved
to shut up the interior, and I determined to open the
country." * To the missionaries, therefore, we owe —
quite apart from their general services in the cause of
Christianity and civilisation — the establishment of British
authority in Bechuanaland, and, indirectly, the acquisi-
tion of the whole of the vast central region now
administered by the British South Africa Company.
Had time permitted it would have been interesting
to have considered Basutoland in detail. In some
respects the Basutos are the most interesting of the
* "Missionary Travels," 1857.
102 SOUTH AFRICA
Bantu peoples in South Africa. We find the tribal
organisation most completely developed among them,
and they inhabit an exceedingly picturesque country,
the Switzerland of South Africa it has been called.
Moreover, it is impossible not to sympathise with Moshesh,
the old chief, who could express the requirements of
political expediency in a phrase so beautiful as that in
which he petitioned for the protection of the Imperial
Government. This was in 1868, when he and his people
were threatened with extinction, or at any rate dispersion,
at the hands of the Free State. Moshesh then prayed : —
" Let me and my people rest and live under the large
folds of the flag of England before I am no more."
This request was granted; but in 1871 Basutoland was
annexed to the Cape Colony. In 1880 the Colonial
Government endeavoured to enforce the disarmament
measures, which they had been led to adopt in con-
sequence of the general disturbances among the Bantu
at the period of the Zulu war, in Basutoland. After an
expensive and unsuccessful campaign, they determined,
in 1883, to abandon the country. The Imperial Govern-
ment regarded this proposal as disastrous to the prestige
of the Europeans in South Africa, and they again " took
over" Basutoland in 1884.
To return to Bechuanaland.
Tradition tells us that in the distant past one Morolong
led the Baralongs from the far North, and that the tribe
settled on the Molopo River under Mabua, fourth in
descent from Morolong. Here the Baralongs were
attacked and dispersed by the Matabele Zulus, under
Moselekatse. On their dispersal one section was led
by Moroko southwards to Thaba N'chu. Two other
sections, respectively led by Taoane, the father of
Montsioa, and Machabi, also found their way into the
country between the Orange River and the Vaal. In
1836 the emigrant farmers entered this same district,
THE BECHUANALAND SETTLEMENT 103
and shortly afterwards the Boers, under Hendrik Potgieter,
entered into an alliance with the Baralongs for the purpose
of attacking Moselekatse. After the "old lion of the
North" had been defeated and driven beyond the
Limpopo, Taoane returned with his following to the
south bank of the Moroko. By virtue of this conquest
Hendrik Potgieter issued a proclamation in which he
laid claim to the whole of the country which had been
overrun by the Zulu chief. Under this proclamation the
Boers (and the Transvaal Government) claimed to exercise
sovereign powers over all the Bechuana tribes ; and in
1868, President Pretorius issued a proclamation by which
the Transvaal authority was declared to extend as far as
Lake N'gami. The British Government, however, at once
protested against this proclamation, and it was withdrawn.
Although some of the Bechuana chiefs recognised the
sovereignty of the Boers, both Taoane and Montsioa, who
succeeded his father in 1849, appear to have repeatedly
refused submission. They maintained that the Baralongs
reoccupied their country as of right, and not by permission
of the Boers. On March 27th, 1870, Montsioa wrote to
the Landdrost of Potchefstroom to complain that taxes
had been demanded of his people by an official of the
Transvaal Government. " If there is not soon made an
end of this lawless matter," he wrote, " I shall be obliged
to hand it over to Her Britannic Majesty's High Com-
missioner, Sir P. E. Wodehouse, with the earnest request
to arbitrate between me and my most noble allies." *
In 187 1 Griqualand West was occupied by the Imperial
Government, and in the same year an attempt was made
to settle this question of the South-Western frontier of the
Transvaal, by arbitration. The Keate Av/ard was, how-
ever, repudiated by the Volksraad, and the question
remained in abeyance. In 1877 the Transvaal was
annexed, and the border was delimited. In 1878 Bechuana-
* " Bechuanaland," by a member of the Cape Legislature, p. 2.
I04 SOUTH AFRICA
land was in a state of great disturbance, and the Griqua-
land West police occupied the country for some time.
After they had been withdrawn Imperial agents were
placed with two of the chiefs, Mathlabane and Manko-
roane. In 1881 the independent Transvaal Govern-
ment was re-estabUshed under the terms of the Convention
of Pretoria. In November of that year the High Com-
missioner, Sir Hercules Robinson, telegraphed * to the
Civil Commissioner at Kimberley, informing him that
" in consequence of the final definition of the Transvaal
boundary, the Government did not intend to continue
to maintain representatives outside the Colonial frontier."
These agents were then withdrawn. In the next two years,
1 88 1-3, Bechuanaland became more and more disturbed.
Montsioa, the Baralong chief, was at war with his brother
Moshette, and Mankoroane, the Batlapin chief, was
engaged in a struggle with David Massou, the head of
the Korannas. Of these four chiefs, Montsioa and
Mankoroane claimed the protection of the Imperial
Government, while Moshette and Massou acknowledged
the sovereignty of the Transvaal. All four chiefs were
assisted by European volunteers, or " freebooters,"
who were to be rewarded for their services by grants
of land ; that is to say — by the land taken from the
rival chief, by the spoils of war in fact.
In November 1883, the Transvaal delegates, Messrs
Kruger, Du Toit and Smit, arrived in England. The
object of their visit was to obtain certain modifications
of the Convention of Pretoria. In this object they were
successful, and on February 27th, 1884, the Convention
of London was signed. As this Convention governs the
existing relationship between Great Britain and the South
African Republic — the name which was now formally
recognised as the designation of the Transvaal State —
and as there appears to be a good deal of misunder-
• C— 3098.
THE BECHUANALAXD SETTLEMENT 1=5
standing on the r^:;rr:, I give tbe telegram in wiiich
Lotd Der:; :'rt :':.-,'. 5r::t:iry for tbe Ccdomes, an-
nounced i:.t ^rotHtioos. This tdi^;tam
wasaddre.-: - - 1 : ■ 7: - ~—h. the acting Goremor
at tiie O.: " - Ht: -e ?.:\'^-z~ had also come
rol^^laiii : : : 1: •.- 1 I i5c5e might have
tbeber=f: ::' :. f ii^.:- i: ■-. -. : ;. v
"C :: T : - ; ^tI ::-:z -^ i :: v: ^ra boandaiy
E5 r:::: Ti : r - it 1: British Pio-
:r:'t;:i:t ". t ::-"::; : -:: ir - :ir. : ■ i-i. e^abiisiied
■=r::h Zz.z.\:-:i ::r.i-:.: 7:.r; :::r._:T z: : ;.-.:Taent of
z-:'i^: : : ^::.ii . r z:: '.Mt ::.-: -::'r':i : :-:iierating
- .; . :. ::::.-:. 1- ' --' Debt
:. :-::t- :.-.i_:ii. Sarne c:-i.T:t intemal
t - 7 - : - fraal as in Orange Free State.
d^omalic ''-- . 'se with
::-r,r r: .- - ;.^- :: itie^i: Qmeais f- -:^7-alto
;"::.:.• 'rr'-rj lt.7.i:T^ i;^;iearwcl- ;i:.i--: Lad
: •: 7t r i: t;- :^: goveromez-i. Vi- ziay
io6 SOUTH AFRICA
The special articles in the new Commission were as
follows : —
IV. And we do hereby require and empower you as such
our High Commissioner ... to take all such measures
and do all such things in relation to the native tribes in
South Africa with which it is expedient that we should
have relations, and which are not included within the
territory of either of the said Republics or of any foreign
power, as are lawful and appear to you to be advisable for
maintaining our possessions in peace and safety, and for
promoting the peace, order, and good government of
the tribes aforesaid, and for preserving friendly relations
with them.
V. And we do hereby authorise and empower you, by
instruments under your hand and seal, to appoint so many
fit persons as you shall think necessary ... to be your
Deputy Commissioners, or to be resident Commissioners or
assistant Commissioners . . . [Such Commissioners to have
the powers, etc., within their districts of the High Commis-
sioner.]
VI. And ... we further authorise, etc., you to appoint
such border agents and other officers as you shall think
necessary, if provision shall have been made for their
payment . . .
This was a very significant departure, for, in under-
taking the administration of the territories occupied by the
natives, the Imperial Government had assumed the
further and very necessary duty of regulating and controlling
the northward expansion of the Europeans.
In pursuance of this new policy Colonel (now Sir)
Marshall Clarke took over Basutoland in March (1884),
and in May Mr Mackenzie arrived in Bechuanaland for the
purpose of giving effect to the newly proclaimed pro-
tectorate.
When Mr Mackenzie arrived in Bechuanaland he found
that the volunteers in the service of Moshelte and Massou
THE BECHUANALAND SETTLEMENT 107
had established two independent communities, the "re-
pubUcs " of Land Goshen and Stellaland. The burghers
of Stellaland submitted, but the burghers of Land Goshen
refused to acknowledge the authority of the Deputy Com-
missioner. During the next few months the country re-
mained in a state of anarchy, which culminated in the out-
rages perpetrated by the freebooters of Rooi Grond at the
end of July and in the month of August. Rooi Grond, it
should be explained, was the capital of Land Goshen.
It had been cleverly placed on the line of the new south-
western boundary of the Transvaal, so that the town stood
partly in the Transvaal and partly in the protectorate. On the
30th of July Mr Mackenzie was withdrawn by Sir Hercules
Robinson. It was stated, at the time the appointment had
been made, that the mere fact of Mr Mackenzie being a
missionary, and therefore known to sympathise with the
natives, was sufficient to render his success impossible.
As a matter of fact, it appears that Mr Mackenzie's actions
as Deputy Commissioner were both equitable and prudent ;
and it seems probable that, if he had been properly supported,
that is to say, if he had received the 200 police for which he
asked, he would have established his authority in spite of
the very great opposition with which he met. In deference
to the opinion of his colonial ministers, which Sir Hercules
Robinson was bound to consider, Mr Mackenzie was how-
ever withdrawn, and Mr Cecil J. Rhodes, a colonial ex-
minister, was appointed to succeed him. Mr Rhodes w^as
accompanied by Captain Bower, who filled the newly
created office of Imperial Secretary. These two gentlemen
fared no better, but rather worse, than Mr Mackenzie.
The freebooters of Rooi Groud were contemptuously in-
different to the arrival of these new officials. They did not
even think it worth while to desist from the attack upon
Montsioa's town, in which they were then engaged, and
scarcely allowed them an opportunity of delivering their
message.
io8 SOUTH AFRICA
At this point in the history of South Africa the
authority of the Imperial Government was " at its lowest
ebb." Mr Mackenzie writes in " Austral Africa " — *
" No Imperial officer before or since was ever in such
a position — dogging the steps of freebooters in the Trans-
vaal with proferred repudiation of our own accredited and
official actions within an English protectorate, and dogging
their footsteps in vain. Cape Colonist, Free State farmer,
roving European — each and all became aware that day
that there was no Imperial or Colonial authority in
Bechuanaland. Delarey and Van Niekerk were masters,
but they gladly acknowledged that they too had a master
— the Transvaal Government, then represented on the
border by General Joubert ; and they accordingly proceeded
to lay the affairs of the protectorate before General Joubert
at Goshen, while the Secretary of the High Commissioner
waited the turn of events, and the wishes of others, at Mr
Delarey's farm."
On September loth, President Kruger issued a proclama-
tion by which " in the interests of humanity " he " pro-
claimed and ordained " the contending chiefs, Moshette and
Montsioa, to be under the protection of the South African
Republic. The proclamation was stated to be made " pro-
visionally " and subject to Article iv. -f of the Convention
of London.
JVotv the Transvaal had gone too far. The broad
contempt of the Imperial Government, and the cynical
disregard of the interests of the mother colony, which
the Boers had manifested in this action, produced a re-
vulsion of public opinion in the Cape Colony. It was
seen that what had been represented as a question of
nationality was also a question of principle ; that the
question at issue was not merely whether the Dutch or
• Vol. I. p. 433.
t Under Article iv. the S. A. Republic remains within the sphere
of British influence as regards its foreign relations.
THE BECHUANALAND SETTLEMENT 109
the English should take the lead in South Africa, but
also whether the inevitable northward expansion of the
Europeans should be an honourable triumph over the
forces of nature and of barbarism, or whether this advance
should be polluted by crime and injustice. And when
this was realised there arose in the minds of all law abid-
ing colonists an earnest desire for the intervention of
England (Note 21).
When this state of affairs was made known to the
Imperial Government they very naturally hesitated. They
declared — the declaration was made publicly by Mr Evelyn
Ashley, the Under-Secretary for the colonies — that, before
England could again interfere by force of arms in the
affairs of South Africa, she must be assured of the
support of public opinion in the Cape Colony.
The reply to this challenge came in the form of a great
public meeting which was held in the Corn Exchange at
Capetown on September 24th. This meeting was both
large and representative. It was declared by the Volksblad
to be " the most important public meeting held in the
colony," since the meeting held in 1849 to protest against
the formation of a penal settlement at the Cape. Among
the resolutions passed the first recorded the opinion : —
" That the intervention of Her Majesty's Government
in Bechuanaland for the maintenance of the trade route
to the interior, and the preservation of native tribes to
whom promises of Imperial protection had been given, was
an act dictated by the urgent claims of humanity no less
than by the necessities of a wise and far-seeing policy."
And the second :
" That any failure on the part of Her Majesty's Govern-
ment to maintain its just rights under the Convention of
London, entered into with the Transvaal, and to fulfil its
obligations towards the native tribes in the protectorate
of Bechuanaland would be fatal to British supremacy in
South Africa."
no SOUTH AFRICA
After this assurance of moral support the Imperial
Government proceeded to take action. On the 9th of
October the High Commissioner formally called upon
the Government of the South African Republic to with-
draw their proclamation ; and this was at once done.
Meanwhile an expedition was equipped and despatched
sufficient to establish the Queen's authority in Bechuana-
land, if necessary, by force of arms : and the command
of the expedition was given to Sir Charles Warren.
While the Bechuanaland expedition was being de-
spatched, the Colonial Government made an attempt to
settle the Bechuanaland question without the intervention
of the Imperial Government. Their object in making
this attempt was stated to be " an earnest desire to avert
bloodshed and avoid the creation of race bitterness and
national jealousies." They were also of opinion that the
appearance of an Imperial force in South Africa at this
crisis would cause a "risk being run of feelings being
aroused which might lead to a calamitous race war, and
of unsettling society in every relation." Acting under
this belief, two members of the Colonial Ministry (the
Premier, Sir Thomas Upington, and the Treasurer-General,
Sir Gordon Sprigg) proceeded to Rooi Grond ; and on
the 22nd of November certain conditions submitted by
these ministers were accepted by the representatives of Land
Goshen. The agreement provided for the annexation of
" the territory known as Land Goshen " to the Cape
Colony ; and it was transmitted in extenso by telegraph
to the Imperial Government. After a fortnight of sus-
pense it was known at the Cape that the Imperial Govern-
ment had refused to ratify the settlement. In the opinion
of Sir Hercules Robinson the terms proposed were
" equivalent to recognition as a de facto Government of
freebooters who had made war on the British protectorate,
and to acknowledgment of the bona fide character of the
claims of the brigands to land in Montsioa's country." *
* C-4275.
THE BECHUANALAND SETTLEMENT iii
General Warren arrived at Capetown on December
4th, and on the following day the decision of the Imperial
Government was communicated to the Colonial Ministry.
Within less than a year, on the loth of November 1885,
he was reading an account of the Bechuanaland expedition
at the Colonial Institute. This expedition stands out in
the history of South Africa as perhaps the one completely
successful armed intervention of the Imperial Government,
and therefore a somewhat lengthy extract from this
account * will not be out of place.
The duties with which Sir Charles Warren was charged
by the terms of his commission were : —
"To remove the fiUibusters from Bechuanaland, to
pacificate the country, to reinstate the natives in their
land, and to take such measures as were necessary to
prevent further depredations, and, finally, to hold the
country until its further destination [was] known."
"There was every intention," Sir Charles Warren says,
" to fight on the part of the fiUibusters, and on the part of
those who sympathised with them, but when they found
that we were prepared at all points, they did not know
how to commence. They received no provocation, and
they simply retired before us and disappeared. This
was due in a great measure to the rapidity with which
the troops were organised, disciplined and drilled and
marched up the country. In four months from the date
of leaving England we had occupied Land Goshen, and
driven the fiUibusters out. Within a month of our leaving
England, viz., on December 13th, the head of the column
was encamped on the Orange River, and recruiting was
going on rapidly; three regiments of colonists of 500 men
each, and a battery of artillery and corps of guides were
enrolled : two of them, namely, the 2nd mounted Rifles
and the Pioneers, were brought together from all parts
* " Our Portion in South Africa," by General Sir Charles Warren,
" Proceedings of Royal Colonial Institute," Vol. xvii.
112 SOUTH AFRICA
of the colony, and the 3rd mounted Rifles was recruited
from the Diamond Fields. Methuen's Horse, which did
not arrive in the colony till December 26th, and which
was composed entirely of English volunteers, was taken
straight up by rail to the Orange River, and there organised
and drilled, and by January 22nd (1885), that is to say,
within six weeks from our arrival in the Cape Colony,
the whole of the troops had marched up ninety miles
through Griqualand West, and were assembled at Barkly
Camp on the Vaal River, numbering nearly 5000 men ;
2000 horses had been bought and shod, saddles fitted,
and men mounted and drilled. Within six weeks of that
date the head of the column had occupied Rooi Grond,
and the whole line of communication down to Barkly,
a distance of 230 miles."
Certain military details which Sir Charles Warren gives
are interesting. In the first place we notice that troops
were employed which had been raised in the colony. These
included men who could not only shoot straight, but who
had been trained to shoot in the very difficult atmosphere
of South Africa. Next, the officers and men were " dressed
alike." It will be remembered, in connection with the en-
gagements in the Transvaal revolt, that there was a very
heavy relative mortality among the officers ; the fact being
that the Boer marksmen shot down the officers first. This
fact — the fact of the men and officers being dressed alike —
was " described by the Transvaal papers as being ' very
unfair.' " Also war-balloons were employed for purposes of
scouting. These were a " matter of mystery and alarm, and
considered unfair and contrary to their ideas of the usages
of war." Again Sir Charles Warren was a "local man,"
and he was able to make use of his knowledge of the
country. The Boers declared that it would be impossible
for the British force to reach Rooi Grond without entering
Transvaal territory to obtain water. Sir Charles Warren
" dug wells, and by the use of tanks prevented the water
THE BECHUAN ALAND SETTLEMENT 113
from flowing back," and thus kept the supply sweet and
wholesome.
" On the other hand," he adds, " a blunder, or a desire
on the part of any of the officers or men to make them-
selves conspicuous, and sacrifice the interests of the
expedition, must have precipitated an action."
On his return from Bechuanaland Sir Charles Warren
was received everywhere with the " warmest enthusiasm."
Not only were the receptions at the large towns in the
colony described as being of an " unprecedented descrip-
tion," but a " most gratifying " reception was accorded
to him by the President and people of the Free State.
" There was," he says, " one general sentiment throughout
the colony of gratitude to the mother-country for having
given peace with honour, having averted civil war, and
having restored to Englishmen the prestige and position
which they had enjoyed in former days."
After the forces were withdrawn Southern Bechuanaland
was created a Crown Colony, and its government was
entrusted to an "administrator." Shortly afterwards the
original protectorate was extended, and the sphere of
British influence advanced to the Zambesi. Subsequently,
in 1895, the Crown Colony of Bechuanaland was incor-
porated into the Cape Colony.
Since this time — that is to say, since the date of the
Bechuanaland expedition — England has continued to
perform the duties of a central authority in respect to
the native tribes outside the Republics ; and to-day all
these native territories, with the exception of Swaziland,
are administered by Imperial or Colonial officers. The
burden of these responsibilities, when once it was frankly
accepted, has proved less heavy than was anticipated.
It is found possible to maintain order and administer
justice in a native territory by means of European officials
and magistrates supported only by a small body of
permanent police ; and the expenses of this simple
H
114 SOUTH AFRICA
administration are practically defrayed by the proceeds
of the hut-tax levied upon the natives, together with those
of the trading-licenses paid by European traders.
We can form some idea of the character of the men
who are engaged upon out-post duty in this part of the
empire from the vivid description of the Bechuanaland
Border Police given by Lord Randolph Churchill. He
visited South Africa in 1891, and the portion of the
force he describes * were then stationed at Fort Tuli, on
the northern boundary of the Transvaal.
" Here, some thousands of miles away from England,
in a country inhabited by a numerous tribe of savages
of noted ferocity, not a hundred miles from the kraal of
the great Lobengula, was a tiny group of men holding
their own, maintaining their authority partly by their own
reputation for efificiency, partly because they represented
the might and prestige of the empire ; never dreaming,
even for a moment, that a shadow even of danger could
approach them, never doubting their ability to dissipate
any danger should it arise. This is the group of military
force which holds for England a portion of South Africa,
from Kimberley to Fort Salisbury, comprising a territory
as large as Germany and France, replete with elements
of a hostile and dangerous nature."
In this and the preceding chapters we have traced the
European occupation of South Africa through a period
of little less than two centuries and a half. We have seen
how the station established by the Dutch East India Com-
pany at Table Bay in 1652 became a settlement; and
how these settlers gradually advanced into the interior,
meeting with little opposition from the yellow races which
constituted the sole inhabitants of these regions, and how,
by the end of the last century, the south-western corner
of Africa was thinly peopled with some 20,000 Dutch-
speaking Europeans. Meanwhile, a dark-skinned race —
* " Men, Mines, and Animals," p. 125.
THE BECHUANALAND SETTLEMENT 115
the Bantu — had simultaneously advanced from the north
and occupied the fertile regions between the Drakens-
berg and the Indian Ocean.
At the beginning of the present century the Cape
settlements were ceded by Holland to Great Britain, and
shortly after this change of administration the stream of
European colonisation setting northwards and eastwards
met the southward flow of the Bantu. For fifty years the
expansion of the Europeans, reinforced by English immigra-
tion, became little more than a record of the conflicts
between the British troops and the warlike tribes of this
family. When the century was half-way through, England,
wearied by the burden of the Kafir wars, recognised the
mdependence of the emigrant farmers, and became a party
to the dismemberment of the Europeans in South Africa.
Twenty-five years later, when the discovery of diamonds had
revealed an unexpected source of wealth, English interest
in South Africa revived, and an attempt was made to
reunite the colonies and states by the creation of a federal
government, and so recover the European solidarity which
had been lost. The attempt came too late. The evils
which a central government could have checked were
already full grown. The well-intentioned efforts of the
Imperial Government encountered a double resistance —
a general rising of the Bantu, and an active and concerted
hostility on the part of the Dutch population in and out of
the Cape Colony. These forces might have been overcome,
and an Imperial policy, at once just and progressive, have
eventually triumphed over all opposition, had not the
counsels of England been divided. In the Bechuanaland
settlement we have reached the turning point in the
history of England's administration of South Africa.
From that time forward the responsibilities of a central
power have been frankly accepted by England, and, in
spite of temporary disturbances, there is reason to believe
that his declared intention to do justice to the colonists of
both nationalities will ultimately reconcile the conflicting
ii6 SOUTH AFRICA
claims of Dutch and English, and the conflicting interests
of farmer and capitalist.
The remaining chapters are mainly concerned with an
account of the gradual development of the material resources
of South Africa. We shall find that deficiencies of soil and
climate have been counterbalanced by a remarkable profusion
of mineral wealth. That under the impulse of gold discovery,
commerce has expanded, population increased, railways
have been constructed, and European civilisation has been
carried up to the Zambesi ; but that this material prosperity
has brought in its train a new series of problems — not hope-
less, but requiring infinite tact, judgment, and determination
for their solution.
CHAPTER VI I.
Agricultural and Pastoral Resources.
"\^rHEN the Emperor Napoleon I. wished to put a
^ ^ taunt upon England, he called the English a
nation of shop-keepers. But Napoleon was scarcely
original. Many years before a great English writer had
noticed the same thing, that Englishmen were a trading
race. The inference, however, which Adam Smith drew,
was the very opposite of that which was, presumably, the
inference of Napoleon ; for Adam Smith adds that the
desire of obtaining markets for their produce had led
the English to found the Atlantic Colonies and commence
the conquest of India. And when Max O'Rell wishes
to give a descriptive title to his last book, which contains
his impressions of the British Colonies, he calls it "John
Bull and Co."
Well, let us accept this continental estimate of our
national life and character. For the moment let us for-
get such names as Shakespeare and Milton, Bacon and
Newton, Reynolds and Gainsborough. Without any
obtrusive patriotism we can find some satisfaction even
in this restricted view of our position in the common-
wealth of nations. For the external trade of England —
and by England is meant the United Kingdom — is far
greater than that of its brilliant and wealthy continental
neighbour, far greater, too, than that of its own great
daughter state —
•'The beacon-bright Republic, far-off sighted."
ii8 SOUTH AFRICA
And that, too, in spite of the marvellous fertihty of
France and the giant proportions of the United States.
The external or sea-borne trade of England for the
year 1889 amounts (in round numbers) to a total value
of seven hundred and forty million pounds (see Appendix^
Table II.)
I take this year, the year 1889, as the basis of my
remarks, because it is a fairly normal year. In 1889 the
trade of England had recovered from the depression
which lasted from 1884-18S8; and it was not yet dis-
turbed by the political and financial troubles in South
America, nor by the M'Kinley Tariff. Since 1889
the total value of our trade has fallen by some fifty or
sixty million pounds ; but, in the first place, this shrinkage
is confined to the money value (for the bulk has increased),
and, in the next, there is every reason to expect that the
money value of 1889 will be reached again and even
exceeded.
Of this total of seven hundred and forty million pounds,
four hundred and twenty-five million pounds represent
imports, and three hundred and fifteen million pounds,
exports. Of our imports, seven-eighths are food and
raw materials, and of our exports — omitting imports re-
exported— seven-eighths also are manufactured articles.
We can see at once, therefore, what the industrial posi-
tion of England is. England is a great workshop, the
greatest workshop in the world : she imports food for
her people, and raw materials which are made up into
manufactured articles, and these manufactures she sells
to the world.
The food purchase of England amounts to a total of
one hundred and seventy-eight million pounds, being
417 per cent, of the total imports. Of this purchase
the largest item, 53*6 million pounds, nearly a third of
the whole, is paid for animal food ; and almost the same
proportion, 5 2 '2 million pounds, is paid for corn, grain
AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL RESOURCES 119
and flour. Then we pay 23-2 million pounds for sugar,
38*3 million pounds for other vegetable products, 8"i
million pounds for spirituous liquors, and 2 "6 million
pounds for fish.
The purchase of raw materials amounts to a total of
181-4 million pounds. The largest item is that of raw
cotton, which is one-fourth of the whole, amounting to
45-8 million pounds. Next to that comes "sheep's wool,"
one-sixth of the whole, for which 297 million pounds is
paid. Then follow "metals and ores," 21 7 million
pounds ; wood, 20*4 million pounds ; textiles other than
sheep's wool, 15 "6 million pounds ; and other raw materials
which make up the balance, 48*2 million pounds.
Now, let us pause for a moment to consider where
England makes her purchases. Speaking generally, we
may say that the bulk of her food and raw materials
comes from the new Anglo-Saxon countries, the United
States and the British Colonies, from Russia and from
British India. An analysis of three important imports,
grain, cotton and wool, will make this plain. Of the
total grain purchase (52*2 million pounds), more than
one-third (18*2 million pounds) comes from the United
States, and more than one-fourth (14 million pounds)
from Russia. The rest comes in decreasing proportions
from India, Canada, Australia and elsewhere. More than
two-thirds (33'6 miUion pounds) of the cotton purchase
(45 "8 million pounds) comes from the United States, and
a much less amount, five million pounds worth, from
India. And actually five-sixths (25*4 million pounds)
of the entire wool purchase (29'7 million pounds) comes
from Australasia. To this last import South Africa con-
tributes some three million pounds, one-tenth of the
whole.*
*The figures in the text are based upon an "Analysis of the Maritime
Trade of the United Kingdom," by Sir Kawson W. Rawson, 1892.
The results are exhibited in tabular form in the Statistical Appendix.
I20 SOUTH AFRICA
While, however, England purchases a part only of
her food and raw materials from the British Colonies,
nine-tenths, that is to say, practically the whole of the
exports of the colonies, omitting the inter-colonial trade,
comes to England. The English import, therefore, from
any given colony furnishes us with a rough measure of
its development. Consequently we can gain, at the out-
set, a general notion of the agricultural and pastoral
development of South Africa, from merely learning that
South Africa is a country which contributes nothing to
the food supplies of England, and only one-tenth of the
wool supply.
Canada, Australia, and New Zealand all contribute in
proportion to their population as much (or more) to the
food supply of England as the United States. New
Zealand, a country with an area only one-tenth of South
Africa and a European population — 600,000 — of about
equal numbers, in addition to a large grain and meat
export, sends nearly twice as much sheep's wool to Eng-
land as South Africa.
Now we will look a little more closely at the South
African exports.* In round numbers they amount to a
total of eighteen million pounds. They have reached this
total mainly through the rapid increase in the output of
gold in the Transvaal, which in 1895, amounted in value
to ;^8,72 5,ooo. This, together with ;^4,ooo,ooo worth
of diamonds from Kimberley, and the copper export gives
a mineral export of about ;!^i 3,000,000. The pastoral
exports consist of more than ;^2, 000,000 worth of sheep's
wool, ;^5 00,000 worth of ostrich feathers, the same
amount of hides, and more than ^^5 00,000 worth of
Angora hair.
Taking the production of grain {See Appendix, Table V.),
horned cattle, and sheep's wool {See Appendix, Table VI.),
the three primary industries of a new country, as a test, we
* I.e. exports passing through Durban and ports of the Cape Colony.
AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL RESOURCES 121
are forced to the conclusion that the condition of South
Africa is very unsatisfactory. And so an account of the
agricultural and pastoral development of South Africa
seems to resolve itself into an endeavour to answer the
question : " To what is this deficiency due ? "
In this enquiry it is necessary to remember what are
the main physical characteristics of South Africa ; and
at the same time we can take the opportunity of ascertain-
ing the position of the chief grain and wool areas.
The first fact that commands our attention is the very
high average elevation of the continent of Africa. This
continent, the tropical continent par excellence, has an
average elevation twice as great as that of Australia, more
than one-third greater than that of Europe, and nearly
one-third greater than that of America, North and South.
It is only equalled in this respect by Asia, which contains
the greatest mountain masses and the highest mountain
summits in the world. In view of the importance of
elevation as a factor in climate, this is a fact which must
largely modify any estimate we form of the political and
commercial value of the central and south-central areas.
The general climatic conditions of South Africa are
determined by the position of the mountain ranges. It
will be remembered * that they are situated compara-
tively near the coast, and to a great extent conform to
the contour of the coast-line. Physically, South Africa
falls into four divisions. The south coast valleys, the
east coast semi-tropical slopes, the central plateaux, and
the western deserts ; the south and east winds which
carry rain-clouds to the interior plateaux and deserts
must be not only violent but continuous, since they have
to bear the clouds over mountain barriers which reach
a height sometimes of 10,000 and 12,000 feet. It is
not surprising, therefore, that the interior districts, form-
ing two-thirds of settled South Africa, should have no
• Chap. I. p. 3.
122 SOUTH AFRICA
regular or periodic rainfall. Moreover, owing to the
rapid fall of the land from the mountains to the coast,
the rivers on the south and east, which traverse these
broken and terrace-like districts, are practically useless
for purposes of navigation and irrigation.
The chief grain areas are these. In the Cape Colony
there is a v>-estern district extending from Piquetberg to
Caledon. It consists of the plains lying between the
mountains and the sea at the south-western corner of the
continent ; and the centre of this district is Malmesbury.
In the east of the colony there are two areas of which
Graaf-Reinet and Middelburg are the centres ; but the
most important area is that which lies between the Storm-
berg Mountains and the Orange River, containing the
centres of Hershel and Barkly East. Grain is not grown
in the Karoo, nor in the eastern coast districts ; for the
Karoo is too dry and the atmosphere in the coast districts
is too moist. In the Orange Free State there is a district
called the " Conquered Territor}-," which is suitable for
grain growing, because it has a periodic rainfall. It
extends for loo miles from Bethlehem to Wepener,
and lies on the south-eastern border. In the Transvaal,
grain can be grown on the Bankenveldt or Terrace
countr}' ; that is to say, in the central districts which lie
between the " high country " in the south and east, and
the " low " tropical belt in the west and north. It in-
cludes the districts Ipng between the River Marico on
the west and Leydenburg on the east, and includes the
very fertile country on and near the Magaliesberg range.
In Natal the only grain which is grown is the Indian
corn or mealies, consumed by the Kafirs.
The wool areas are more extensive than the grain areas.
In the Cape Colony there is, first of all, a district in the
Western Province l>'ing on the south coast from Caledon
to Mossel Bay ; and, in the eastern provinces and the
Transkeij the whole country between the Stormberg
AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL RESOURCES 123
Mountains and the Indian Ocean. In both of these
areas the sheep are pastured upon grass. Then there are
the central districts, including the Karoo and the country
northward of the great mountain ranges ; here the sheep
are pastured on the succulent Karoo plants — plants with
leaves, stems, and roots thickened to contain stores of
moisture, and therefore able to survive long periods of
drought. Passing outside the Cape Colony, we may say
that practically the whole of the Free State is suitable for
sheep-raising. In the Transvaal the high country is most
suitable, and sheep are pastured in Natal on the highest
plateau to the north and east of the colony.
In order to complete this rapid sur\-ey of the agricultural
and pastoral resources of South Africa it is necessarj' to add
a brief account of three special industries of the Cape
Colon)- — mohair, ostrich-farming, and the cultivation of the
vine.
By " special " is meant that these are industries which
can only be carried on in countries, or districts of countries,
which are naturally suitable for them.
The Angora goat, which furnishes mohair, is a native of
the central plateaux of Asia Minor, and is also found in the
highlands of Persia and Kashmir. The value of the hair
of this animal was recognised in very ancient times. It
was used for the hangings of the Tabernacle of the
Israelites ; and the robes of the kings of Persia consisted
of cloth of the same material. Attempts were made to
introduce these fine-haired Eastern goats into the Cape by
the Dutch East India Company as early as 1725. But
this original attempt to bring the goats from Kashmir via
Ceylon failed. Subsequent attempts made early in the
present century were only partially successful : and it was
not imtil forty years ago (1856) that the industry was really
established. The honour of founding the industry belongs
to Mr Adolph Mosenthal who himself visited Asia Minor
to procure the animals. In his quest he was greatly
124 SOUTH AFRICA
assisted by the late Lord Stratford de Redclyffe, the famous
EngUsh ambassador at the court of the Sultan. Another
name which deserves to be honourably mentioned in con-
nection with this industry is that of Sir Titus Salt, the great
Yorkshire manufacturer. The bulk of the goats' wool from
the Cape is still made up at the Saltaire works.
The average annual clip per head amounts in weight to
five or six pounds, and is worth 20s.
But the Angora goat is not only valuable, it is also a very
beautiful animal. Somewhat smaller in size than the
domestic goat, it has a small and pretty head, surmounted
in both sexes by long, flat, corrugated horns extending from
18 to 24 inches, its fleece falls in natural ringlets almost
to the ground, and is white and lustrous. The herds of
Angoras roam at will over the veldt, unrestrained by any
boundary, but they are docile and easily managed.
The value of the annual export, taking a five years'
average, amounts to ;^4oo,ooo ; and this Cape export forms
one-third of the mohair purchase of England.
The ostrich industry presents an obvious contrast to the
Angora industry, for the ostrich is a native — a very old
inhabitant indeed — of South Africa. But the industry was
not established without effort. There are three stages.
At first the wild birds were hunted and killed, and the
feathers were so obtained. Next, ostrich chicks {i.e. young
birds up to seven months of age) were caught and farmed.
But these birds, when they were full grown, were found to
be very fierce and unmanageable, and the number of birds
kept was very small. In 1865, however, as many as eighty
ostriches were returned as forming part of the live stock of
the colony. The establishment of ostrich farming as a
separate industry dates from the year 1869, when Mr
Arthur Douglas perfected his artificial incubator. By
means of this invention successive generations of birds have
been hatched, brought up by hand, and, in this way, being
accustomed to man from their birth, the birds have become
AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL RESOURCES 125
increasingly domesticated. Now a drove of ostriches
proceeding on a Cape road is a sight which is no more
alarming, and scarcely more unusual, than a drove of
cattle.
Ostriches are kept on farms throughout the colony ; but
they are not farmed outside the Cape Colony. Within
the colony the industry is tending to become specialised.
The chief districts are Oudtshoorn on the south coast, and
Albany in the eastern province. The price of ostrich feathers
varies very much, as the demand is controlled by the changes
of fashion, but the average yearly value of the export is
^500,000.
Viticulture is, from one point of view, the most interesting
of the Cape industries. It is the oldest established, and it
is carried on in the districts which have been longest
colonised — the mountain slopes and valleys in the south
western corner of the colony. The surroundings of the
wine farms are very picturesque. The old Dutch home-
steads are quaintly built, with coal-black thatched roofs and
white-washed walls ; and the vineyards, owing to the re-
markable fruitfulness of the vines, are richly coloured in
the season of the grape harvest. The vine plants are
grown without stick or trellis or other supports, and have
very much the appearance of currant bushes. The soil of
these districts of the Cape is specially suitable for viticulture,
yet, from an economic point of view, this industry is the least
satisfactory of all, for the amount of wine exported from the
Cape is very small. In 1892 it amounted to ;!^i 8,000.
We are now in a position to answer the question which
preceded this review of the agricultural and pastoral
resources of South Africa.
The insufficient development of South Africa in respect
of these primary industries — grain growing and the raising
of horned cattle and sheep — is due to two main causes, one
physical and one moral. The physical cause is the in-
sufficiency and uncertainty of the rainfall in the interior ;
126 SOUTH AFRICA
and the moral cause is the unprogressiveness of the Boer
or South African farmer.
Observations * covering a period of thirty-five years show
that in the British Isles the annual average rainfall varies
(omitting certain abnormal stations) from 22 inches at
Greenwich to 38 inches at the Orkney Isles ; and in
France from 24 inches at Paris to 52 inches in the
Department of the Lower Pyrenees. In the Cape Colony
observations (again omitting abnormal stations) show a
variation from 2 inches at Port Nolloth to the 37 inches
which fell in the very wet year, 1876, at King William's
Town. Taking averages, we find that the average rainfall
in the western districts is 9 inches, in the midland 1 7
inches, and in the eastern 27 inches.
Combining these facts, we may safely conclude that an
average year in the Cape Colony would be considerably
drier than the driest year in the United Kingdom or in
France. And we may say further, that the weather in
South Africa generally is marked by long periods of
drought, terminated by torrential rains.
This uncertain and insufficient rainfall, together with the
unsatisfactory nature of the South African rivers, and the
fact that there is as yet no adequate machinery for water
storage and irrigation, is a very real hindrance to agricul-
tural and pastoral pursuits.
The moral cause is the unprogressiveness of the Boer or
South African farmer.
Travellers are only too unanimous on this point.
Captain Percival, who visited the Cape of Good Hope
in 1796, the second year of the temporary British occupa-
tion, writes : f
" The Dutch farmers never assist the soil by flooding,
being satisfied with the moisture it derives from the water
* Symon's Tables.
t "An Account of the Cape of Good Hope," by Captain Robert
rcrcival, iSo.i, p. 227.
AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL RESOURCES 127
in its neighbourhood. Their only labour is sowing the
seed ; leaving the rest to chance and the excellent climate.
Their ploughs, harrows, and utensils of husbandry are
clumsy, ill-formed, and clogged ; but they cannot be
prevailed on to make any alteration in the system of their
agriculture."
And a little further on he says : *
" No part of the world has had its natural advantages
so abused as the Cape of Good Hope. The very minds
and dispositions of the settlers interfere with every plan of
improvement and public utility."
Lord Randolph Churchill, who visited South Africa in
1 89 1, writes, f with special reference to the Transvaal
Boer :
" The Boer farmer personifies useless idleness. Occupy-
ing a farm of from six thousand to ten thousand acres, he
contents himself with raising a herd of a few hundred
head of cattle, which are left almost entirely to the care of
the natives whom he employs. It may be asserted,
generally with truth, that he never plants a tree, never digs
a well, never makes a road, never grows a blade of corn.
Rough and ready cultivation of the soil for mealies by the
natives he to some extent permits, but agriculture and the
agriculturists he holds alike in great contempt."
Then we have one whom we may call an impartial
witness — the genial Frenchman who disguises his admir-
ation for England under an assumption of literary mahce.
In " John Bull and Co." Max O'Rell says : f
"The Boers are farmers and sportsmen, nothing more.
Their ancestors were farmers, and they do not conceive
that they themselves could be anything else. Ignorant,
* Idem. p. 231.
t " ?.Ien, Mines, and Animals," p. 94.
X p. 305.
128 SOUTH AFRICA
bigoted, behind the times, these Dutch Bretons, transplanted
in Africa, cultivate the soil like the contemporaries of the
patriarchs, and refuse even to look at agricultural machinery."
On the other hand, what can be done even with the
difficult soil of the Karoo has been shown by Mr Logan's
enterprise. Speaking of Mr Logan's estate of 100,000
acres at Matjesfontein, Lord Randolph Churchill writes :*
"Mr J. D. Logan, . . . 100,000 acres . . . has settled
himself down on what appears at first sight to be the most
unpromising spot for a farmer which the mind can imagine.
Here, in the arid plain of the Karoo, producing nothing
but low scrub and scanty herbage, he has built himself
a large and comfortable house, a spacious homestead with
good cottages for his men, and elevates with much success
flocks of many thousands of sheep and herds of many
hundreds of cattle. The Karoo is far more hospitable
and nourishing for live stock than the uninstructed tourist
would imagine. The climate is perfect, the air invigorating
like that of Scotland, and the only source of anxiety to the
farmer is found in the somewhat insufficient rainfall. Sport
is to be obtained in plenty .... I imagine that many
a young English farmer with a good training, an active
disposition, and a small capital, might find in the Karoo
both a home and a fortune. No rent, scarcely any taxes,
and perfect freedom are constituents of happiness which to
the ordinary English farmer would appear almost an un-
realisable dream."
And he testifies to the capabilities of the Transvaal soil
in general : f
" All over the Transvaal, and especially round Johannes-
burg, the well-watered and yet easily drained valleys possess
a soil of astonishing fertility, which, with ordinary skill and
care, could produce abundant crops of almost every grain,
every vegetable, and every fruit. Whether for house-
• Id. pp. 35, 36. t Id. p. 80.
AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL RESOURCES 129
building, for use in mines, or for common firewood, the
plantation of trees proposes to a landowner munificent
remuneration. Such is the geniality of the climate, such
the fertility of the soil, that many kinds of useful and
valuable trees are estimated by competent authority to
make a growth of no less then ten feet in the course of a
year."
Lastly there is the evidence of the wine industry. Baron
Karl von Babo, the son of the Austrian expert in viti-
culture, was commissioned by the Cape Government in
1885 to visit and report upon the wine farms. According
to his report, the vineyards of the Cape are six times as
productive as those of Europe, and eight times as pro-
ductive as those of Australia. And yet we find that in the
year 1892, while the single colony of Victoria, in Australia,
exported wine to the value of ;^63,235, the Cape exported
less than one-third of that value (^17,964) {See Appendix^
Table VII.).
In the face of this evidence we can scarcely avoid the
conclusion that the climate and soil of South Africa are
not so much at fault as the men who have become, to so
large an extent, the possessors of the soil. And if this
is so, if, after all, man and not nature is chiefly at fault in
South Africa, it becomes interesting, and indeed necessary,
to ask. What are the Cape Government doing ? What are
the men, that is to say, who are from time to time entrusted
with the management of the affairs of the colonists, doing ?
During the last ten or twelve years we must, I think,
admit that the Cape Government have done all that could
be reasonably expected of them. They appear to be
sensible of the reproach under which their colony labours,
the reproach of having the dearest loaf in the world. They
are conscious of the necessity which exists for developing
the agricultural and pastoral resources of the colony, and
during this period a number of useful measures have been
introduced with this object in view.
I
I30 SOUTH AFRICA
For example, it is well-known that vegetation, forests in
particular, promote rainfall. In 1883 the forest depart-
ment was rendered effective, and the necessary measures
were taken to preserve the existing forests, and to raise
fresh plantations in suitable districts. The colony is
now divided into four forest conservancies, and each
of them is placed under the control of a "conservator
of forests " and his assistants. Other colonies have
followed this example, and now Natal has its "forest
officer," and Bechuanaland its " forest ranger " ; while
the Chartered Company have from the first had a forest
department to watch over the woodlands of Mashonaland.
In this same year (1883), also, a select committee was
appointed by the Cape Parliament to enquire into the
condition of the agriculture and industries of the colony.
According to the evidence before this committee,* it
appeared that the farmers chiefly complained of the un-
certain supply of the native labour which they employed.
The committee themselves spoke of " the crying want
of irrigation works in various parts of the colony." Acting
on the recommendations of this committee, the Government
soon afterwards created a "department of agriculture,"
and established agricultural schools at suitable centres.
And so to-day, not only can the young agriculturist
obtain scientific agricultural instruction, but the farmers
themselves can procure advice from qualified officials on
practical matters, such as the treatment of diseases among
stock, and the best methods of fertilising the various soils.
Moreover, of late years the Cape Government, in
common with other governments in the British colonies,
have passed a number of laws regulating the sale and
cultivation of their unoccupied areas. All the colonies
possess a valuable, though not always a realisable, asset
in their unoccupied or " crown " lands. In the Cape
one-third of the area of the colony is as yet unappropriated
* Cape Parliamentary Papers, A. 3 — 83.
AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL RESOURCES 131
to private owners. The proceeds of the sale and leasing
of these lands form a considerable item in the revenue
of a colony. But, apart from these direct profits, the mere
occupation and cultivation of fresh areas is advantageous
to a new country ; and recently the Australasian Govern-
ments, at all events, have had a further object in view.
They have endeavoured to distribute part of their urban
population by settlements in rural districts ; for there has
been the same tendency in the Pacific colonies to crowd
into large towns as we have observed in England.
The system of sale is very much the same in all the
British colonies. A distinction is made between " large "
and " small " areas. The former are sold by auction, and
the latter are practically assigned to applicants by the Land
Boards. From time to time the Government announces
that such and such blocks of crown lands are to be sold,
and the lots are knocked down to the highest bidder.
But even in the case of these large areas — areas which
might tempt the capitalist or the investor — the purchase
is facilitated, for it is not necessary to pay the whole of
the purchase money at once. In the Cape Colony a
deposit must be paid at the time of purchase, one-tenth
of the purchase money within six months, and one-fifth
within twelve months. The balance may remain unpaid,
and on this balance (properly secured) the purchaser pays
a moderate rate of interest, 4 per cent., to the Govern-
ment. In the year 1892 two million acres of crown lands
were sold in the Cape Colony. They realised a total sum
of ;!^ 1 28,025, that is to say, they sold at an average price
per acre of only (about) is. 3d.
The small areas are from 8 to 500 acres in extent,
and consist of land suitable for occupation by small
farmers and agricultural settlers. An applicant sends
in an application to the Civil Commissioner of the
district in which the land is situated. He must state
among other things that he is twenty-one years of age, and
132 SOUTH AFRICA
does not possess as much as, or more than, 500 acres
of land in the colony. His application is referred to
the Land Board of the district ; and, if it is approved,
the applicant receives a license to occupy the holding
for five years, on payment of an annual license fee fixed
at one-twentieth part of the value of the land, as estimated
by the Board. At the end of this period, if he has
fulfilled the conditions of the license, the licensee receives
a quit-rent title instead of his license, and continues to
pay the amount of his license fee as quit-rent. From
the issue of the license the licensee is recognised as
having an interest in the holding, which he can both
sell or assign (under certain conditions), but the Govern-
ment reserves to itself all rights to gold, silver, or precious
stones. Since, in the case of these small areas, the
occupation and cultivation of the land is part of the
consideration which the purchaser gives, he must fulfil
two conditions. He must commence to reside on his
holding within six months, and he must bring one-twentieth
part of the land into cultivation within two years. Taking
the average price of land to be that shown by the sales
in 1892, the annual license fee which would be paid
on a holding of 500 acres (the largest permitted by
the law) would amount to ^i, i is. 6d.
There is need of such settlers, and of the exercise
of human skill and ingenuity in the task of fertilising the
soil. Remarkable as is the mineral development of the
last few years, it is the Veldt, and not Kimberley or
Johannesburg, which characterises South Africa. Once
beyond the barrier ranges and the undulating plains
spread on every side desolate and illimitable. The surface
of the earth is broken only by rounded and flat-topped
masses, hills with the contour of mountains, weird dis-
tortions which serve only to confuse the vision. There
is neither tree nor shrub, homestead nor boundary, to
arrest the eye. At most a line of mimosa bushes marks
AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL RESOURCES 133
the barren track of the periodic water course, and the
brown earth at our feet is studded here and there by
stunted bushes.
Such is the Veldt, and such is the characteristic
landscape of two-thirds of settled South Africa.
Yet even so the human spectator experiences no sense
of depression ; for over his head the great sun is shining
in his might. In the high plateaux of South Africa
and the uplands of Australia, where the air is free from
all humidity, the increased power of the sun is welcomed,
and not dreaded. It is difficult to describe this influence
of the sun. Let me try to do so by an illustration. In a
recent novel,* the heroine, a young Australian girl, is
represented as chilled and depressed beyond all endurance
by a wet day in the English summer.
" Gazing out at the wretched day . . . she longed for
one little glimpse of the sunlit bush. The barest sandhill
on her father's run would have satisfied her, so long as its
contour came with a sharp edge against the glorious dark-
blue sky ; the worst bit of mallee scrub in all Riverina —
with the fierce sun gilding the leaves — would have pre-
sented a more cheery prospect than this one on the banks
of the renowned . . . Thames."
Stimulated by this beneficent influence, the Anglo-Saxon
in South Africa will irrigate, cultivate, and fertilise the
Veldt, till the whole face of nature has been changed.
Does such a prospect seem too remote? If so, let me
put this further question — " Do we understand how
greatly a country and a climate may be affected by the
agency of man ? " When I hear men speaking of this and
that new country as being unsuitable for European occupa-
tion, I wonder whether the speakers have ever considered
what England, this garden of the world, was like in the
sixth century, the century in which Englishmen first settled
here, and in which was born the one nation of the Teutonic
* "A Elide from the Bush," by Mr Ilorming.
134 SOUTH AFRICA
family absolutely untainted by the moral and physical
degeneracy which marked the declining years of the
Graeco-Roman civilisation.
At that time the famous area which now contains
Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, the offices
of Downing Street and Whitehall — a group of buildings
which more than any other concentrates in itself the past
history and the present life of our nation — was a desolate
ridge barely emerging from the surrounding marshes which
separated it, by an interval of two miles, from the town of
London. The English settlements upon the east and
south coasts were isolated from each other, and cut off
from the interior of the island, by fen and forest, marsh
and ing. Between the Sussex coast and the valley of
the Thames lay Andredsweald, a stretch of forest, broken
by uninhabited wastes, extending from Kent to Berkshire.
From York to Cambridge there ran a succession of ings,
marshes, and fens, which effectually barred the progress
of the east coast settlers. The greatest manufacturing
district of England was covered by the forest of Elmet,
which stretched from Nottingham to Cumberland ; Wales
was protected by the forests of Dean, of Wyre, and of
Arden ; West Wales, as the counties of Cornwall and
Devonshire were then called, by the forest of Selwood.
So great were the natural difficulties, and so inhospitable
was the climate, that, had there been no convenient
estuaries, and above all, no deep and placid rivers to
bear the English keels into the heart of the island, the
colonisation of Britain by the English might never have
been accomplished.
Those who discourage the acquisition of fresh areas in
Africa — South and Central — and disparage the value of
the territories already colonised, are wanting in this faculty.
The dry bones of history and political economy must
be clothed by the imagination to assume form and
substance. Such persons arrange their facts as the
AGRICULTURAL & PASTORAL RESOURCES 135
Japanese artists arrange their lines ; they have no sense
of perspective to guide them. They discredit a new
country because it cannot satisfy the tests which they
would apply to an old country ; they condemn the
change of to-morrow because it is impossible under the
conditions of to-day.
It was no easy task, that task which was undertaken by
the English in the sixth century — to clear the forests, to
drain the marshes, and reclaim the wastes of Britain ; and
who shall say that this same colonising race, with its
quickened intelligence, its inherited aptitudes, its ac-
cumulated stores of knowledge, its ocean-going steam-
ships, its railways, and its telegraphs, shall not teach even
the desert of South Africa to "rejoice and blossom as
the rose " ?
Note. — For the effect of the Rinderpest, see Note 31.
CHAPTER VII I.
The Diamond Mines.
TT is certainly somewhat remarkable that the circum
-*- stances which attended the discovery of diamonds
in South Africa appear to be only imperfectly remembered
to-day. There are various accounts ; but these accounts
differ from each other in some material particular, and
that, too, although the events to which they refer happened
less than thirty years ago.
This much, however, would appear to be established.
In the year 1867, a hunter or trader, named O'Reilly,
was enamoured of a white stone which was shown him
among a collection of river pebbles at a farmhouse in
the Hopetown district of the Cape Colony. This white
stone proved to be a diamond, and was sold eventually
to the Governor, Sir Philip Wodehouse, for ;^Soo. Two
years later, in 1869, the farmer himself, Van Niekerk,
purchased a similar stone from a Griqua Hottentot for
cattle and goods of the estimated value of ;^4oo.
This second stone was bought by Messrs Lilienfeld
of Hopetown for 10,000 pounds or guineas. It was
appropriately christened " the Star of South Africa," and
subsequently came into the possession of the Countess
of Dudley, who paid ;^2 5,000 for it.
This was exciting news, and before long a number of
persons were searching for similar treasures over the
district at the confluence of the Vaal, the Modder, and
and the Orange Rivers. As the white pebbles had been
river stones, the diggers first of all directed their attention
136
THE DIAMOND MINES 137
to the banks of the Vaal, working their way northwards,
and finding numerous diamonds. By the beginning of
the year 1870 there were 10,000 men on the banks of the
Vaal. Towards the end of that year diamonds were dis-
covered on two farms, Dutoitspan and Bulfontein, about
20 miles south of the bend of the river where these
" wet " diggings were situated. The diggers now rushed
southwards, and established themselves as best they could
in the middle of the barren and desolate plain. Next
year two new mines were reported, " Old " De Beers and
the " Colesberg Kopje," or Kimberley. All these four
mines would be enclosed by a circle with a diameter of
only 3^ miles, and they produce nine-tenths of the total
output of diamonds from South Africa.
Kimberley, as the "dry" diggings came to be col-
lectively called, was anything but a pleasant place of
residence. There was no regular communication even
by road with the surrounding districts, and no certain
supply of food; the miners were sheltered by the most
unsubstantial of dwellings ; water was scarce, and the
dust of an eight months' drought blinded their eyes and
choked their throats.
The diamondiferous area is covered by the square
formed on the map of South Africa by the intersection
of the 28th and 30th parallels of south latitude and the
24th and 26th degrees of east longitude. This square
vv'ould include the two mines in the Free State, Koffy-
fontein and Jagersfontein, subsequently discovered and
situated to the south of Kimberley, and the river diggings
to the north. Almost the whole of this district is en-
closed by the wide fork of the Orange and Vaal Rivers, and
it has an elevation of more than 4000 feet above sea level.
The diamond mines of Kimberley * are the craters and
* The account in the text is based upon the reports of the De
Beers Consolidated Mines, Limited, and in particular on the "Tech-
nical Report " of Mr Gardner F. Williams, the general manager,
issued in the second Annual Report (1890).
138
SOUTH AFRICA
pipes of extinct volcanoes filled with mud, or "blue
ground," of igneous or eruptive origin. These oval
columns of blue ground occur in the formation known
as the Karoo Beds — a formation which extends over the
whole of the interior of what we call " South " Africa, and
By Permission of De Beers Consolidaled Mines ^ Ltd.
below the surface layers they are encased in horizontal
strata consisting of, first, carbonaceous shales, then an
amygdaloidal trap called " melaphyre," and, lastly, quartzite.
The thrust which filled the pipes has come from below.
That appears from two circumstances. In the first place,
the edges of the softer strata, the carbonaceous shales,
were found to be turned upwards, and, in the second,
The diamond mines. ^39
fragments of the lower encasing rocks are found in the
higher levels of the column in the shape of boulders
embedded in the blue ground.
The origin of the diamonds themselves is not yet
explained. At first it was suggested that the diamonds,
being pure carbon, had been formed by the passage of
volcanic steam through the carbonaceous shales; but
when the work of excavation proceeded, and the levels
of the column below the shales were still found to contain
diamonds, this theory had to be abandoned.* That the
diamonds were not made in the pipes in which the blue
earth is now enclosed is proved by the fact that broken
crystals are frequently found : for these crystals, of course,
could only have been broken during the movements which
accompanied the process of filling the pipes. There is
one further fact which is noticeable. It seems that the
blue ground has not spread beyond the lips of the craters.
This circumstance is accounted for by the supposition
that, at the time the columns reached the surface, the
country was under water. It was covered, it is supposed,
by the waters of a great fresh-water lake in the Karoo
area. The waters of this lake subsequently flowed into
the sea, over, and through, the barrier ranges, discharged
by some great convulsion of nature.
The diamonds were won at first by surface diggings,
and afterwards by subterranean workings.
During the first period the mines rapidly assumed
the appearance of open quarries. In the Kimberley
mine, the richest of the four mines, the blue ground
was at first removed by means of roadways which had
been left between the claims when the diamondiferous
area was first marked out. But in the middle of the
second year, 1872, these roadways fell in, and a system
* If, however, as appears to be the case, fresh strata of carbonaceous
shales are found below the quartzite, the theory would again become
possible.
140 SOUTH AFRICA
of bucket haulage had to be adopted. Wire cables
were carried from the various workings to the edge of
the crater, and the blue ground was carried in buckets
running on these cables. In order, however, to keep
the numerous cables clear of one another, and provide
each proprietor with a sufficient space for hoisting and
tipping the buckets at the edge, wooden stagings, with
tiers of platforms, were erected round the margin ; and
by this contrivance the extent of the landing space was
multiplied by three.
Meanwhile, as the work of excavation proceeded, the
difficulty and cost of raising the blue ground increased.
The central, and lowest, claims were flooded by accumu-
lations of drainage water, and the encasing rocks became
disintegrated by exposure to atmospheric influences, and
fell in. In 1874 the Kimberley Mining Board was
established to combat these evils. It represented the
combined interests and the combined resources of the
miners, but it proved unequal to the task of keeping
the workings clear. In 1882 more than half a million
of money was spent in removing "reef," as the fallen
rock was called ; and still the open workings were only
partially cleared. Early in the following year the Board
desisted from the hopeless conflict. Its books showed
a deficit of a quarter of a million, and the banks refused
to discount its "reef" bills. And so in the Kimberley
mine operations were brought to a standstill.
It was clear that the blue ground must be removed
now by subterranean workings ; but it was by no means
easy to see how these subterranean workings were to be
commenced. To pierce the hard rock outside the limits
of the crater, and reach the blue ground by transverse
drivings, was considered at first both too costly and too
lengthy. Moreover, it was not yet ascertained that the
supply of blue ground was practically inexhaustible.
Wliat was required was some method of reaching the
THE DIAMOND MINES 141
diamondiferous ground which would not entail the per-
formance of an amount of dead work which would eat
up the profits. Also the method must be speedy, for
the industry required immediate relief. These require-
ments were met by a scheme put forward by Mr Edward
Jones, an engineer. He proposed to reach the submerged
blue ground by sinking shafts through the reef itself.
The shafts were sunk on the " coffer-dam " principle ;
that is to say, successive frameworks of wood were let
down into successive excavations, and in this way the
shifting mass of debris was penetrated without dangerous
or inconvenient dislocations of the surrounding soil,
and the blue ground was once more reached.
At the same time, however, some of the open workings
were again cleared by means of fresh removals of reef.
These fresh removals of reef produced fresh, and even more
disastrous, subsidences, which both carried away the new
shafts and machinery and again submerged the open workings.
In all four mines successive falls of reef occurred, and
the open workings were gradually abandoned. By the
year 1885 it was admitted that open workings could not
be carried on below a certain depth, which varied from
350 to 400 feet; and it was then that the present system
of subterranean working was gradually introduced.
Under the new system shafts were sunk outside the
margin of the craters, and the blue ground was struck
by transverse tunnels. The subterranean workings were in
operation first at the De Beers mine ; and the introduction
of the system caused the annual out-put of diamonds
won from that mine by the De Beers Mining Company to
rise from half a million to a million carats. At the
same time the cost of production was largely decreased
by the improved methods which had been simultaneously
introduced. Moreover, as the orifice of the pipe was
reached, it was seen that the column of blue ground
extended perpendicularly downwards, and that the supply
142 SOUTH AFRICA
of diamond-bearing material was practically inexhaustible.
Although the new workings were not yet in operation at
the Kimberley mine, it was known that the same forma-
tion existed there too.
The diamond industry was now threatened by an
entirely different, and quite unexpected, danger, the loss
of profits by competition, the diminution of the value
of the diamond by excessive production. In 1882 the
value of the carat was 27s. 3d., in 1887 it had already
fallen to i8s. 5|d.
This disaster was prevented by an amalgamation of
the competing companies.
The amalgamation of mining interests was the last
of a series of changes of ownerships which had ac-
companied the changes in the methods of winning the
diamonds which we have traced. Originally the diamond-
iferous area of each mine was marked out in claims.
In the Kimberley mine these claims were 31 feet by
31 feet. No person was allowed to hold more than one
claim under the early regulations, but the more valuable
claims were sub-divided, and so this mine at one time
contained 1600 separate mining properties. In 1874
the limit of claims tenable by a single owner was raised
to ten ; and shortly afterwards it was altogether abolished.
As the difficulty and the consequent cost of raising the
blue ground increased, a process set in which may be
called the elimination of the individual digger. In 1 880-1
the majority of the properties held by individuals were
converted into Limited Liability Companies ; and, in
1883, the Inspector of mines reported, with respect to
the Kimberley mine, that it " could never be worked to
best advantage until all the payable holdings had been
amalgamated." In 1885 the four mines were in the
possession of forty-two companies and fifty-six private
firms. One mine, the De Beers, however, was divided
among only seven companies and three private owners.
THE DIAMOND MINES 143
Among these companies the most important was the De
Beers Mining Company, and this Company became the
nucleus for the amalgamation.
The De Beers Mining Company was founded in 1880,
with a capital of ;i^2 00,000. It gradually absorbed the
whole of the De Beers mine, and then obtained, by
purchase of shares and amalgamation of properties, con-
trolling interests in the remaining three mines. On the
31st March 1883, the De Beers Mining Company became
the De Beers Consolidated Mines, Limited ; and two
years later the directors of the new Company were able
to report to their shareholders that the object with which
the conversion had been effected, " had at last been ac-
complished, and the four diamond-producing mines of
De Beers, Kimberley, Dutoitspan and Bulfontein were
now practically under the control of the Company,"
In this way a contest between the proprietors of the
Kimberley and De Beers mines, which must have ruinously
affected the industry, was averted. The author of this
briUiant financial achievement was Mr Cecil Rhodes.
Speaking of his part in the amalgamation of the Kimberley
mines. Lord Randolph Churchill says : * "It was this great
work accomplished in the teeth of unheard-of difficulties,
and almost insurmountable opposition, representing the
conciliation and unification of almost innumerable jarring
and conflicting interests, which revealed to South Africa
that it possessed a public man of the first order."
The "De Beers Consolidated Mines," therefore, practi-
cally represents the diamond industry of Kimberley, and
their methods are the methods of that industry. They
were adopted in 1889, and they embody the result of
nearly twenty years' experience of diamond mining.
Although the Company control all four mines they are at
present working only two, Kimberley and De Beers. These
two mines afford a sufficient and economic supply of
* " Men, Mines, and Animals," p. 38.
144 SOUTH AFRICA
diamond-bearing ground, for it is the policy of the Company
to place only that amount of diamonds on the market which
it can carry at the present price per carat, about 25 s.
The first operation * is to raise the blue ground to the
surface. For this purpose tunnels are driven north and
south, east and west, through the area of excavation. The
rectangular spaces formed by the intersection of the tunnels
are successively cleared of blue ground, working from the
rock margin inwards. As the process of excavation proceeds
the reef or debris gradually falls in and fills up the space
created by the removal of the blue ground. The working
levels are laid out 40, and the main levels from 90 to
120 feet apart. The "hoisting" is done only from the
main levels. The blue ground is " dumped " down through
shoots to the main levels, then loaded into trucks and
finally " tipped " at the foot of the shaft into the " skip."
The skip holds four loads, or rather more than three tons,
and Mr Gardner Williams, the general manager of the
Company, reports in June of 1893, that an average of 5*3
tons per minute had been hoisted by a single shaft during
an eight hours' " shift."
At the head of the shaft the blue ground is tipped into
surface boxes, and then drawn off into trucks which carry it,
by a system of " endless wire rope haulage," to the " floors "
for pulverisation. These " floors " are simply rectangular
spaces, 600 yards by 200 yards, marked off" on ground
which has been cleared of bush, and rendered hard and
level by rolling. The length of the main line is three miles,
and there are two branches, respectively one mile and
three-quarters of a mile in length.
This second operation, pulverisation, is effected by
exposing the blue ground to the action of the air and rain,
and to assist disintegration the ground is " worked " or
broken up, first by men with pickaxes and afterwards by
* This account of the methods pursued is based upon Mr Gardner F.
Williams' "Technical Report."
THE DIAMOND MINES
145
harrows drawn originally by spans of mules, but subsequently
by steam power. The length of the exposure required varies
from three to six months according to the nature of the blue
ground.
The pulverised blue ground is then "washed." The
machines are erected in " nests " at various points, and are
generally placed on heaps of tailings. The blue ground is
carried by mechanical methods to the top of the machines,
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and dumped into a shoot which is furnished with perforated
pipes. These pipes supply water and at the same time
regulate the downward passage of the mass into the puddling
cylinder. The latter is a revolving cylinder, two and
a half feet in diameter, with perforations of one and
a quarter inch round, and one inch square. Both
clear and muddy water is poured into the cylinder
with the blue ground. The " coarse " ground passes out
at the end of the cylinder and is carried back to the floors
146 SOUTH AFRICA
for further pulverisation. The " fine " ground passes
through the perforations and is shot into the washing pan.
The washing pan is fourteen feet in diameter, and is
furnished with ten revolving arms provided with " teeth "
so set as to work the solid mass by a spiral course to the
edge of the pan, while the lighter stuff is discharged from
the centre into a second pan, called a " safety " pan. Each
" safety " pan serves two " washing " pans. The solid
DLB£ERS COfiSOilDATED MINES L".'
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mass, or " deposit " is drawn off by means of a " slot "
from the edge of the pan every twelve hours. It is this
" deposit " which contains the diamonds.
Meanwhile the water is not wasted. It is carried from
the puddling cylinder to a mud screen, and, after being
purified, is again hoisted by bucket elevators out of the
tank into which it flows from this screen, to the top of
the machine. The rate at which the machines work may
be gathered from the fact that from forty to forty-five loads
THE DIAMOND MINES
U1
pass through a single pan in one hour. Nor is the
efficiency of the machinery inferior to its speed, for by this
process the blue ground is reduced to one-hundredth part of
its bulk. That is to say, that loo loads of blue ground are
" washed " down into one load of deposit.
This deposit is then " graded," or separated into
stones (or gravel) of equal size, and further concentrated
by Hartz jigs or " pulsators." The separation is performed
by a cylinder, about 1 5 feet long by i ^ in diameter, made
-SECTION A.8-
Bjf Permission.
by metal plates with round perforations of four different
sizes, namely, from ^th to fths of an inch in diameter.
The coarse deposit passes out at the end, and is then
sorted by hand. The fine deposit passes through the
perforations, and flows down on to jigs furnished with
screens covered with a layer of bullets, and having square
perforations corresponding to the round perforations in
the cylinder. The four sizes of stones are collected in
V-shaped boxes under the screens. The lighter stuff,
148 SOUTH AFRICA
however, remains on the surface of the downward flowing
mass, passes over the top of the screens, and is carried off
to the tailing heap. Out of twelve loads of deposit fed
into the cylinder, one would pass out at the end, four
would pass through the screens of the pulsators into the
boxes, and seven would be carried away as waste.
The deposit thus separated into masses of equal sized
stones is then laid out on tables and sorted. The sorting
is done first (while the stuff is wet) by European workmen,
and afterwards by native convicts supplied by the Cape
Government.
The diamonds vary in size from a pin's head to that of
the largest diamond as yet found at Kimberley. This
measured if inches through the major, and i^ inches
through the minor axis, and weighed in the rough 4281^
carats, and, when cut, 228^ carats.* They show all
colours, green, blue, pink, brown, yellow, and are both
clear and opaque. After sorting they are sent, under an
armed escort, to the diamond ofifice. There they are classified
by reference to their size, colour and purity, and finally
made up into parcels, and sold to the agents of the
European diamond-merchants.
The following figures will show the extent of the opera-
tions of the De Beers Consolidated Mines : —
The extent of the open works of the four mines is
1 1 1.73 acres. The De Beers mine shows an area at the
hard rock level of io'i2 acres of which 5*97 are worked;
and the Kimberley mine, at the same level, of 4*55
acres, of which 2*69 are being worked. Both mines and
works are lighted by ten circuits of electric lamps, with a
total illuminating power equal to that of 63,696 candles.
The amount of labour employed, according to the Report
On June 30th, 1893, a diamond was found at the Jagersfontein
Mine, in the Orange Free State, which weighs 969J carats gross, is of
fine quality, and bhie-while colour, and measures through its longest
axis 3 inches. This is probably the largest and the most valuable
diamond in the world.
THE DIAMOND MINES 149
issued in June 1890, was 1261 Europeans, who are
comfortably housed at the village of Kenil worth, and 5250
natives, who are imprisoned in the two " compounds."
Among the underground workers the wages of the
Europeans range from ^^7 to ;^4 per week ; and those of
the natives from 4s. to 5 s. per day. The Europeans and
native workmen on " the floors " receive respectively from
j[^(i to ;!^3, I2S., and from 21s. to 17s. 6d. per week.
By means of this plant and this supply of labour, in the
financial year 1892-93 (in round numbers) three million
loads of blue ground were raised at a cost of a million and
a half sterling, and the diamonds found realised three
millions and a quarter, showing a profit of a million and
a half ; and out of this profit, after all necessary deductions
and reserves, the Company paid two half-yearly dividends
of i2| per cent, on their capital of four millions.
These, then, are the processes by which the diamonds of
Kimberley are won. Let me add a description of the
town itself. It is the vivid picture contained in Lord
Randolph Churchill's " Men, Mines, and Animals." *
" Nothing in the external appearance of Kimberley
suggests either its fame or its wealth. A straggling,
haphazard collection of small, low dwellings, constructed
almost entirely of corrugated iron or of wood, laid out with
hardly any attempt at regularity, and without the slightest
trace of municipal magnificence, is the home of the
diamond industry. It seems that when the diamonds
were first discovered some twenty years ago, many
thousands of persons settled down suddenly on the
spot like a cluster of swarming bees, and established
themselves anyhow as best they could in the most
rough and primitive fashion, never dreaming but that
the yield of diamonds would be of limited extent and
short duration, that their fortunes would be rapidly
acquired, and that they would pass as rapidly away
* P. 36.
I50 SOUTH AFRICA
from the place, having exhausted all its wealth-producing
resources. The reverse has proved the case. The
diamondiferous resources of Kimberley are now known
to be practically inexhaustible, but the amalgamation of the
mines has restricted employment and checked immigration,
and the town still preserves, and probably will always pre-
serve, its transitory and rough-and-ready appearance."
There is one point still to be noted. The special
character of this industry has produced some rather
curious legislation. In order to protect the diamond
industry — an industry in which the product is at once
so valuable and so portable — the Cape Parliament has
passed a series of enactments which have created a
statutory crime known as " Illicit Diamond Buying," and
this crime is punished with remarkable severity. The
ordinary presumption of the law in favour of the innocence
of the accused is abolished, and a man is liable to a
maximum penalty of fifteen years' penal servitude for
merely neglecting to report to the proper quarter, and
at once, a diamond which he may have chanced to have
found (Note 22).
In the case of the native employes extraordinary
precautions are taken. During the term of their service,
for three months and more, they are treated as prisoners.
Every day they are stripped and searched on leaving the
mines, and for a week before the conclusion of their
contract they are isolated and subjected to a regime which
makes a theft of diamonds a physical impossibility.
The story of the diamond mines wins our interest not
so much because of the element of the marvellous which
surrounds the commencement of the industry — the weird
situation, the strange origin, the chance discovery — but
because of the difficulties which beset its development.
Twice the industry was threatened with destruction — in
1883 by successive falls of the encasing rocks, and in
1889 by the commencement of a ruinous competition.
THE DIAMOND MINES 151
The lesson of Kimberley is the value of effort. There
was no high motive to elicit this effort. At first sight
scarcely a useful purpose was subserved, for the value
of a gem is of all values the most artificial, its beauty is
of all beautiful objects least securely founded upon utility.
But the digger and the capitalist sought not diamonds
but wealth : a few were successful, far more were un-
successful ; but South Africa has reaped the benefit of
their efforts.
"The pulpit and the press," says Emerson,* "have many
commonplaces denouncing the thirst for wealth; but if
men should take these moralists at their word, and leave
off aiming to be rich, the moralists would rush to rekindle
at all hazards this love of power in the people, lest
civilisation should be undone."
The history of the diamond mines affords us a striking
illustration of this pregnant remark.
The yield of twenty-five years' search in the Kimberley
mines has been exchanged for seventy millions of money.
This exchange has been a factor of supreme importance
in the history of South Africa. The interest of the
mother-country was awakened, the railway system of the
Cape Colony was developed, and, above all, an energetic
and wealthy community was created in the heart of South
Africa.
What ultimate developments, political and commercial,
will follow the era of gold discovery we cannot tell, but of
this at least we may be certain, that the present quickened
life of South Africa is the direct outcome of the experience,
the energy, and the resources which were concentrated
there by the search for diamonds, — that Johannesburg
and Fort Salisbury are alike the offspring of Kimberley.
* " The Conduct of Life " : E^say on Wealth,
CHAPTER IX.
Gold-Mining.
TT is the prospect of the rapid acquisition of wealth
-*- which makes men leave their home and expose them-
selves to unknown difficulties and unknown dangers in
new countries. The most efficient magnet is gold. In
the middle of the century we have seen it at work populat-
ing North America and Australia : during the closing years
of the century we see this same powerful influence in full
operation in South Africa.
The mineral wealth of South Africa is both varied and
widely distributed.
Iron is found in the Cape Colony, in the Orange Free
State and in Natal, and there are ample deposits of this
useful metal in the Transvaal and in the territories of the
Chartered Company. At present this metal is not
worked.
Copper-mining is the oldest of the mineral industries
of (modern) South Africa. The deposits lie in the north-
western corner of the Cape Colony. Copper-mining was
commenced in 1852; and by 1864 the export had risen
to ;;^ 1 00,000 in value. Since that date the annual out-
put has reached a value varying between p^ 2 5 0,000 and
;!^8oo,ooo. Out of the annual output of 30,000 tons,
nine-tenths (27,000 tons) are raised by the Cape Copper
Mining Company. Ookiep, where these mines lie, is
connected by a line of railway, ninety miles in length,
with Port Nolloth.
Silver is found in the Cape Colony, but not in payable
GOLD-MINING 153
quantities. In the Transvaal there is a district which
would be enclosed by a circle with a diameter of 50
miles, immediately east of Pretoria, where there are
abundant deposits of silver. A considerable amount of
capital has been invested in these Transvaal silver mines,
and several companies are at work. So far, however,
the industry is promising, but not yet established : its
development has been hindered by the superior attractions
of the gold fields.
Coal is found in the Cape Colony, in the Orange Free
State, in Natal, and in the Transvaal. In the Cape
Colony the coal mines on the Stormberg Mountains are
being worked. Three of these, Cyphergat, Fairview, and
Molteno, furnish an annual output of 35,000 tons, * and
provide supplies of coal for the Eastern and Northern
Railway systems. The Free State output is about 20,000
tons. The Natal coal deposits are found in the highest
and most northern of the three natural formations or
terraces into which the area of that Colony is divided.
The annual output amounts to 140,000 tons ; and of this
total more than three-fourths (117,000 tons) was raised
by the Dundee Coal Company at the place so named.
The coal industry is a valuable ancillary to the sugar
industry, f The coal fields in the Transvaal lie in close
juxtaposition to the gold fields. Coal deposits are found
over a wide area extending from the Vaal River on the
south to Middelburg on the north, and from Boksburg
(on the edge of the Randt Basin) on the west to the
Drakensberg Mountains on the east. Two collieries,
the Brakspan and Springs, which have an output of
200,000 tons and 100,000 tons respectively, lie on the
eastern edge of the Randt basin, and furnish the gold
fields with the necessary supplies of coal at an average
price of 20s. 6d. the ton. This convenient and abundant
* The coal figures are taken from the returns for 1892.
t See Chapter V. p. 85.
154 SOUTH AFRICA
supply of fuel has largely assisted the rapid development
of gold-mining on the Randt.
The subjoined comparison will indicate the significance
of these figures —
Estimated area of coal fields Annual output
in square miles. in tons.
South Africa, . 56,000 600,000
New South Wales, 25,000 3,500,000
United Kingdom, 4,000 180,000,000
The coal industry in South Africa, therefore, is in its
infancy, but it is capable of indefinite development.
Gold is found in the Cape Colony, but not in sufificient
quantities to repay the miner or digger. Both in the
Knysna and at Prince Albert in the Karoo, gold winning
has been commenced and abandoned. It is also found
in Zululand, in Swaziland, in the Transvaal, and in the
territories of the Chartered Company. To-day, gold-
mining is being actively prosecuted in the Transvaal and
in Matabeleland and Mashonaland.
The era of gold development has advanced rapidly.
Only ten years ago gold-mining in South Africa was a
tradition of the past or a dream of the future. Men
looked regretfully at the old Dutch maps in which
Mashonaland and Matabeleland were indicated as "The
Land of Ophir": or shook their heads when they were
asked to buy shares in the Transvaal gold ventures. Up
to this time there had been many discoveries and many
disappointments.
As early as the year 1854, two years after the inde-
pendence of the emigrant farmers beyond the Vaal had
been recognised by the Imperial Government, discoveries
of gold were reported in the Transvaal. But the Boer
Government prohibited prospecting. They were afraid —
and rightly so — that the introduction of a mining popula-
tion would endanger their newly acquired independence.
GOLD-MINING 155
The early explorers were compelled, therefore, to turn
their attention to the districts northward of the Limpopo.
The history of the discovery of gold offers a contrast to
the history of the discovery of diamonds. The searchers
for diamonds stumbled at the very outset upon the richest
deposits, the four marvellous mines at Kimberley ; but
fortune seems to have taken a whimsical delight in mis-
leading the prospectors. Hartley, the " pioneer of the gold
fields," himself possessed a farm on the Witwatersrandt.
In 1869 Baines passed over the northern outcrop of the
famous conglomerate beds when he was conducting a
party of gold prospectors from Durban to Matabeleland.
During the period of the annexation (1877-81), an
Australian expert, Mr Armfield, was employed by the
first administrator. Sir Theophilus Shepstone. He was
at work prospecting on the Randt, but the conglomerate
beds escaped his hammer. And so it was not until two
years' patient and skilful search had been completed by
two brothers, Mr H. W. and Mr F. Struben, that the
existence of the most valuable and the most permanent
gold field yet known to the world was revealed.
After the discovery of the Tati gold field by the German
explorer, Karl Mauch, in 1865, the early restrictions upon
prospecting were withdrawn by the Transvaal Government,
and gold discovery was encouraged In 1872 the subject
had become sufficiently important to require the attention
of the Volksraad, and the first gold law was passed in
that year. This law — the first of successive enactments
which were codified by the " Consolidated Gold Law "
of 1885 — declared the right to all minerals and precious
stones to be vested in the state (Note 23). At the same
time rewards were offered for the discovery of payable
gold fields.
The first gold fields in the Transvaal were in the
mountainous regions east and west of the Northern
Drakensburg.
156 SOUTH AFRICA
In 1873 the Landdrost of Lydenberg reported that
gold had been discovered thirty-three miles east of his town,
and these Lydenberg fields have continued to be worked
up to the present with varying fortune. After the Retro-
cession (1881) the Transvaal Government adopted the
" concession " or " monopoly " principle. It is alleged
that they wished to reduce the numbers of the miscel-
laneous mining population by placing the industry in the
hands of a few capitalists. Whether any such intention
existed or not, the object in question was not secured.
The diggers withdrew to the De Kaap valley, fifty miles
south of Lydenberg, where the existence of gold had been
reported as early as 1875. In 1886 a rich mine, the
Sheba mine, was discovered in this district, and in the
following year Barberton, the centre of the De Kaap
fields, had attracted a population of 10,000 persons.
Since that date Barberton has gradually declined. For
both the Lydenberg and the De Kaap fields have been
drained of their population by the Randt, which was
declared a public gold field in September 1886.
The Witwatersrandt is the ridge of a great stretch of
uplands, the " high veldt " of the Transvaal, which runs
for 300 miles, almost due east and west, between the
valley of the Vaal and the head waters of the Limpopo.
Johannesburg stands on the crown of this ridge at an
elevation of 5735 feet above sea level.
It was on these same desolate uplands that the Transvaal
flag was raised by the Triumvirate in revolt against the
Imperial Government on the i6th December 1880. In
1 886 a few prospectors and their workpeople were the
sole inhabitants of the Randt. To-day Johannesburg
ranks as one of the commercial centres of the world ;
and for thirty miles along the crest of the ridge the pit-head
gears, batteries and surface works of the sixty or seventy
companies in active operation, give evidence of the millions
of capital which have been invested,
GOLD-MINING 157
"Johannesburg," says Lord Randolph Churchill, "ex-
tends for a considerable distance along a ridge of hills
6000 feet above the level of the sea. Around, wherever
the eye reposes, it is arrested by mining shafts, hauling
gear, engine houses and tall chimneys. Johannesburg
presents a very English appearance, that of an English
manufacturing town minus its noise, smoke and dirt. The
streets are crowded with a busy, bustling, active, keen,
intelligent-looking throng. Here are gathered together
human beings from every quarter of the globe, the English
possessing an immense predominance. The buildings
and general architecture of the town attain an excellent
standard, style having been consulted and sought after,
stone and bricks the materials, corrugated iron being
confined to the roofs, solidity, permanence and progress
the general characteristics. The rise of the town has
been almost magical." *
The sudden growth of Johannesburg f is the more
remarkable when we remember that at first every nail,
every plank, every brick, every morsel of food and every
drop of drink had to be carried up to the desert plateau,
for a hundred miles or more, on ox-waggons. The
average pace of the ox-waggon is a mile and a half
an hour. To-day, however, the railway has brought
Johannesburg within forty-nine hours of Cape Town, and
seventeen or eighteen days of London.
Geologists tell us that the granite foundation of South
Africa was overlaid by sedimentary accumulations which
became quartzose strata ; that both granite and horizontal
strata were pierced and broken by the intrusion of igneous
rocks ; that the distorted surface was again covered by
horizontal strata, and again broken by fresh intrusions
of eruptive masses ; and that, finally, the whole system
was subjected to a great convulsion which carried the
* " Men, Mines, and Animals in South Africa," p. 58.
t The present population is 102,078. See Note 30.
X58
SOUTH AFRICA
edges of broken sections of the horizontal strata to the
surface, and in places even thrust the granite through
the successive layers of sedimentary rocks. Then the
face of the whole country was smoothed and softened
by the silent passage of the hand of Time.
The Randt basin is a section of the upper series of
quartzose strata, broken and dislocated, but preserving
B-eU>n<v
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a certain regularity of curvature from its depressed centre
to its upturned edges. The sandstones and quartzites
are interstratified with beds of conglomerate, and it is
these conglomerate or " banket " reefs which carry gold.
The edge of the basin can be traced for some 130
miles on the southward slope. On the northern edge
there is an outcrop of half-a-dozen parallel reefs — the
Main Reef series — which extends for thirty miles east and
GOLD-MINING 159
west of Johannesburg. Further east at Heidelburg, and
further west at Klerksdorp there are fresh outcrops ;
and from all these outcrops the reefs dip towards the
centre of the basin at angles varying from 80 to 10
degrees.
The thirty miles of the northern outcrop, from Rand-
fontein to Boksburg, is the centre of the mining activity.
There are some sixty or more companies at work, and the
district is traversed by a railway which runs from the
Spring Colliery on the east to Krugersdorp on the west ;
and thus provides the industry with its supplies of coal.
The character of the ore is such that both the most
efficient machinery and the most skilful processes are
required for successful gold extraction. Above the water
level — which varies in depth from 50 to 150 feet — the
ore was a friable conglomerate, which yielded by milling
80 per cent, of its gold. But the supply of free-milHng
ore was soon exhausted. Below, it is a hard, pyritic
conglomerate, yielding only 50 per cent, by mechanical
processes ; and it is this pyritic ore which constitutes
the auriferous supply of the Randt basin.
The crushing of the stamps, therefore, and the con-
centration of the vanners, are supplemented by chemical
processes (Note 24). The "concentrates" are treated
by the Plattner or Chlorination process ; and the " tail-
ings " by the M'Arthur-Forrest or an equivalent Cyanide
process.
The result of this combination of milling, concentration,
and precipitation is that 90 per cent, of the gold which the
hard pyritic ore carries is successfully recovered.
And now a question of great interest arises : What is the
probable area of these auriferous deposits ? What is the
probable extent of the conglomerate beds ? This is a
question which can only be answered by experts, and that
approximately.
Mr Hamilton Smith, the American mining engineer,
i6o SOUTH AFRICA
visited the Randt at the end of 1892, for the purpose of
reporting to Messrs Rothschild on the prospects of mining
at deep levels. He assumes that 50,000 feet of the northern
outcrop, that is to say, not quite eleven out of thirty
miles of outcrop, extends southwards to an inclined depth
of 5200 feet, with an average probable thickness of five
feet. He calculates that this extent of conglomerate would
contain 100,000,000 tons of ore, of which 3,000,000 tons
had been already raised, and that the value of the balance,
at a yield of 12I dwts. the ton, would be ;^2 15,000,000.
He further assumes that " the many miles " of conglomerate
beds outside this area will produce at least half as much
more, and concludes, therefore, that the total value of the
Randt deposits is ;i^3 2 5,000,000, or about _;^i 00,000,000
in excess of the total yield of California between 1849 ^"^
1892 (;^23o,ooo,ooo). He also adds that in his opinion
the producing power of the mines will be raised in " three or
four years " to an output of " five or six million tons of ore
per annum," and a yield of _p^i 0,000,000 in value. As
the yield of the Randt for 1895 amounted to a total of
2,277,635 ozs., valued at ;^7, 839,500, it appears that
this forecast will be realised. This output is, of course,
independent of the lesser Transvaal fields. Beside the
Lydenberg and De Kaap fields, those of Klerksdorp and
Potchefstroom have commenced to yield handsomely. These
lesser fields yielded 250,000 ozs., or about ;j^8 5 0,000 worth
of gold in 1895.
A later estimate, that of Mr Theodore Reunert,* puts
the value of the auriferous deposits of the Randt basin at
;^45o,ooo,ooo.
This estimate proceeds upon the assumption that the
reefs which outcrop for thirty miles on the edge of the
basin can be worked for one mile across the dip, and have,
as before, a payable thickness of five feet. This thirty
square miles of conglomerate beds would yield, at the low
* In " Diamonds and Gold in South Africa," p. 193.
GOLD-MINING i6i
grade of 8 dwts. the ton, 130,000,000 ozs., or rather more
than the ;!^45o,ooo,ooo worth of gold.
The actual evidence of the southward extension of the
conglomerate beds, which is a necessary assumption in both
these estimates, consists of the results obtained by the
borings and shafts already sunk. Vertical shafts have
struck the reefs at a depth of 700 feet, and inclined shafts
have followed the dip for 1000 feet. The "great bore-hole,"
starting from a point more than three-quarters of a mile
south of the outcrop, found the Main Reef, in June 1893,
at a depth of 2400 feet. Here the angle of the dip has
changed from 60 to only 16 degrees, and both the thick-
ness and the auriferous character of the reef is maintained.*
This evidence, combined with the fact that the outcrop
of the reefs has been traced for 150 miles in all — for there
is an outcrop southward of the Vaal River in the Free
State — makes us inclined to believe that the actual magni-
tude and value of the gold deposits of the Randt have been
underrated in both these cautious estimates. Indeed, both
these estimates are based upon what is admittedly only a
partial review of the auriferous resources of the great gold
field, t
But the gold deposits of South Africa are by no means
confined to the Randt basin.
The establishment of railway communication between
Pretoria and Delagoa Bay, now accomplished, is expected
* According to the Johannesburg Star of June 17th, 1893, 5 ft.
8 in. of the Main Reef was traversed, and assays of the South Reef,
previously pierced at a depth of 2343 feet, gave an average yield of 23
dwts. 12 grs. to the ton of ore.
t Since the above was written Mr Hamilton Smith has contributed
a fresh article to the Times (Feb. 19, 1895), i" which he gives the
results of observations made from August to December 1894. He
says : ' ' From the foregoing statement it is evident that the chances are
far greater now than they were in 1892 of my conjectures of that date
being realised, and to-day nearly every one conversant with the Randt
considers them as being considerably under the mark." A further
extract is given in the Notes {25).
L
i62 SOUTH AFRICA
to produce renewed activity in both the Lydenberg and
the De Kaap fields ; and at any time the gold fields of
Mashonaland and Matabeleland may leap into competition
with the Randt.
In the immediate future, therefore, we may expect to
find in South Africa the largest and most reliable con-
tributor of gold that the world has ever possessed.
It will probably merit both these adjectives.
The output of the Randt alone has grown from 34,897
ozs. in 1887 to 2,277,635 ozs. in 1895; rising in value
from p^i 25,000 to nearly _;^8, 000,000. The advance
of the last year (1895) is about 250,000 ozs., or about
^^850,000 in value.
If this rate of progress is maintained in the Randt, the
Transvaal output will overtake the highest outputs of
the United States or Australia, the ;^i 5,000,000 and
;^i 3,000,000 worth of gold which were respectively won
in these countries in 1853. But will this rate of increase
be maintained ? Apart from the evidence of the extent
of the conglomerate beds already given, there is this
further consideration which points to the permanency of
the Randt output. Whereas the Californian and the
Australian fields were indebted for their great initial
outputs to alluvial deposits, or rich veins of gold, the
Randt output has been drawn from the first from reef
mining. The Randt, therefore, has no reason to fear
any such rapid decline as accompanied the change from
alluvial to quartz mining in both the United States and
America.*
• Professor Egleston, in " Metallurgy of Gold, Silver, and Mercury
in the United States," says that ^210,000,000 out of an estimated
total of ^235,000,000 worth of gold yielded by California between
1851 and 1861 was drawn from "auriferous gravels," His estimate
of the Californian output is higher than Mr Hamilton Smith's (given
above), and he puts the total gold production of the world between
these years at a higher figure than that of Dr Soetbeer, upon whose
tables the figures in the text are based. (Journal of Statistical
Society, June 1894.
GOLD-MINING 163
The diminished Australian output of gold remained at
(about) ;;^6,ooo,ooo value for the fifteen years 1875-1890 ;
and the diminished output from the United States remained
at (about) ;^6, 500,000 value during the years 1882-1892.
The Australian output has since been strengthened by
discoveries in Western Australia ; and the total American
output (including the United States, Mexico, and British
Columbia) is reported to have amounted in 1894 to more
than ;^9, 000,000 in value — a yield which exceeds that
of any previous year subsequent to 1870. There is one
other important contributor to the world's gold supply
— Russia. The Russian output has averaged from
;;^4,ooo,ooo to ;^5,ooo,ooo lu valuc for the last twenty
years, and it is said that prospects of an increased output
are entertained.
In view of the long continued decline in the gold outputs
of the United States and Australia the appearance of a new
and apparently permanent contributor to the world's gold
supply is obviously a matter of great commercial import-
ance. From 1700 to 1850 the world's annual gold supply
was about ;^2,ooo,ooo in value. For the twenty-five years,
1850-1875, it averaged ;^25, 000,000. This was the period
when both the American and the Australian gold fields were
at the height of their productiveness, and it was marked
by a great industrial and commercial expansion. During
the fifteen years 1875-1890 the world's gold supply fell
to an average of ;^2o,ooo,ooo. Assuming that America,
Australia, and Russia continue to produce not less than
a total output of (say) ;2^i 8,000,000, the Randt's present
contribution of ;,^8,ooo,ooo raises the world's annual gold
supply to the level of the period 185 0-187 5. If> however,
the Randt's output be increased, or still more, if both the
Randt's output be increased and further contributions are
added from other South African gold fields, the supply at
the end of the century will exceed that obtained during
the ten years 1 850-1 860, the period of the great initial
i64 SOUTH AFRICA
output of the American and Australian fields (Note
No one, I suppose, would deny that this increase in
the world's supply of gold will have a beneficial effect
upon agriculture, manufactures, and industries.
The prices which were obtained by producers during
the normal period 1867-1877 had fallen in 1891 by
28 per cent.* Since then they have reached a still lower
level. We need not stop to enquire to what extent this
loss to the producer has been modified by the fact that
the producer is also a consumer — a consideration which
includes the further fact that the workman's wages have
an increased purchasing power. It is sufficient for the
moment to assume the truth of the statement, which we
hear repeated on every side, that this fall in prices is the
immediate cause of the present agricultural and com-
mercial depression. Ultimately, no doubt, the producer
would again receive a normal value for his produce.
Meanwhile he is at a disadvantage. He is at a dis-
advantage in payments made for all services from those
of an employe to the highest professional skill. For these
services are estimated by reference to the general wealth
of the community — the general capacity of the com-
munity at large to purchase them ; and this is ex hypothesi
a higher standard than that of the falling industry.
Again, in payments made in respect of loans and debts,
either on account of capital or interest ; for the capital
repaid has now a higher purchasing power, and the
interest is paid at a rate fixed when the profits of the
industry were greater. Lastly, he is at a disadvantage in
payments made to the State. During all this period of
falling prices, from 1877 onwards, we have been uncon-
sciously laying an increasingly unfair proportion of the
burden of taxation upon our producers. In all these
• Mr A. Sauerbeck's table in Statistical Society's y(?«;«a/, March
1892.
GOLD-MINING 165
ways the classes which are economically the most im-
portant in the community are receiving an inadequate
share of the general profits.
Without pretending to trace the working of a process
so subtle as the " appreciation " of gold, or the acquisition
of an artificial value by money under the present mono-
metallic system, it is impossible not to connect this fall
in prices with the absolute decrease of 20 per cent., and the
far higher relative decrease in the output of gold shown
by the period 1 875-1 891 in comparison with the period
1850-1875. If this be so — if the remedy for the partial
paralysis of our agriculture and of our commerce be an
increased supply of gold — we may take heart, for this
remedy is surely at hand.
CHAPTER X.
Conflict of Nationalities and Races.
A SSUMING the population of South Africa * to be
■^^ 4,000,000, this total would be composed of 650,000
Europeans and 3,350,000 coloured people. The numerical
relationship of the Europeans to the coloured people varies
in the several colonies, states, and territories.
In the Cape Colony the Europeans are to the coloured
people in the proportion of one to four ; in Natal they are
as one to twelve; in the Free State, as one to two; in the
Transvaal, as one to four ; in the Crown Colony of Bechu-
analand, as one to ten ; and in the territories of the
Chartered Company, as one to one hundred.
Neither the coloured nor the European population is
homogeneous.
The composition of the former is approximately shown
by the subjoined table : —
Aborigines (Hottentots and Bushmen) . 50,000 ■)
(Military : i.e. Kafirs, Zulus, I
and allied tribes . . 2,350,000 |
Industrial: i.e. Bechuanas, r 3)350,000
Basutos and Mashonas . 700,000
Mixed Races (Cape " boys ") . , . 250,000
Malays 13,000,
Of the 650,000 Europeans, if we omit to take account
of other nationalities, probably 375,000 would be Dutch
and 275,000 English. The two sections would approxi-
• As previously defined : Africa south of the Zambesi, omitting the
German and Portuguese territories.
166
CONFLICT OF NATIONALITIES AND RACES 167
mately be distributed as follows : — in the Cape Colony, as
eleven to nine ; in Natal, equally ; in the Free State, as
nine to one ; in the Transvaal, equally, although, ten
years ago, the Dutch were to the English as seven to one.
These three main elements, Bantu, Dutch, and English,
are organised into a variety of communities : —
Mode of Government.
Two British Colonies j NatS*^°^^"^ } Responsible Government.
Two Republics
Native Territories
Territories of the
South African")
Republic
(Transvaal)
Free State
Basutoland
Zululand
Tongaland
Transkei
Tembuland
Griqualand
Pondoland
Chartered Company/
Full internal freedom within
terms of Conventions.
Officers under High Com-
missioner.
Officers under Cape Govern-
ment,
Administrator for civil, and
Deputy Commissioner for
military, affairs.
The relationship of these states to England as paramount
power, of course, varies very considerably.
In the Cape Colony and Natal the Governor is the
" link " by which this relationship is maintained. The
political functions of the Governor of a Parliamentary
Government have been aptly compared by Lord Dufferin
to the duties performed by " the man with the oil can " in
tending a piece of machinery. Sir Hercules Robinson, in
a speech delivered at Kimberley in 1884, described the
more obvious duties of his office in some detail. Those
duties, he said, were negative rather than positive. In
case of a difference of opinion between the Governor and
the Ministry, he could say " No." If the ministers then
resigned, the appointment of the person to be entrusted
with the formation of a new Ministry rested with him. In
1 68 SOUTH AFRICA
case of a disagreement between the Ministry and the
Parliament, the Governor must decide whether it is best
for the public interests that there should be a new Ministry
or a new Parliament.
The Governor acts as a link between the colony and the
mother-country in so far as he is himself advised by an
Imperial Minister, the Secretary of State for the colonies, in
giving advice to the colonial ministry. Moreover, he is in
all things political and social the representative of the
Sovereign, and as such he exercises the peculiar preroga-
tives of the Crown.
It must be remembered that the Governor of the Cape
Colony fills two distinct and sometimes conflicting offices
— those of Governor of the Cape Colony and High Com-
missioner for South Africa.
In his capacity of High Commissioner he gives effect
immediately to the views of the Imperial Government.
Through the high Commissionership the forces of the
Chartered Company and the territory of Basutoland are kept
under the direct control of the Imperial Government. The
Government of Zululand is also similarly related to the
Imperial Government ; for the Resident Commissioner in
that country represents the Governor, not the Government,
of Natal.
The control which England exercises over the Re-
publics is based partly upon the position of the former
as paramount power in South Africa, and partly upon
rights definitely reserved by the terms of the successive
Conventions.
As paramount power the Imperial Government has
(and exercises) the right to interfere in cases where the
action of an otherwise independent state would endanger
the common interests of the Europeans in South Africa.
Under the Conventions, the ultimate control of the
relationships of the two Republics with foreign powers
is maintained by special clauses, which render the assent
CONFLICT OF NATIONALITIES AND RACES 1 69
of the Imperial Government necessary to the validity of
treaties respectively concluded between the Republics
and such foreign powers.*
The fate of Rhodesia is still undecided. At present,
an Imperial officer is placed in command of the local
forces. The civil administration is left in the hands of the
Administrator, who is appointed by the Directors of the
Company with the approval of the Secretary of State for
the colonies ; but, whereas he can be removed by the
Directors only with the consent of the Secretary of State,
he can be removed by the Secretary of State immediately
and without the assent of the Directors. "|*
Here, then, is a great country in the making.
Did ever history present a more amazing picture of
political complexity? Was there ever a single country,
or rather a single province of an Empire, that consisted
of such diverse elements and showed so great a variety
of political and social organisation ?
I speak of South Africa as one country. Am I justified
in so doing ? Yes, because there exists a principle of
unity which cannot be overlooked or forgotten — the
paramount power of England. Its present divisions —
where such divisions are real and not apparent — are due
to the neglect of this principle in the past, and its future
progress and ultimate consolidation depends upon the
maintenance of this principle in full vigour and in full
operation in the future.
But the paramount power of England was not effectively
exercised in South Africa until a comparatively recent period
— the period of the Bechuanaland Settlement (1884-5).
Then for the first time the policy of the Imperial Govern-
* By article IV. of the London Convention the South African Re-
public is prevented from making treaties w^ithout the assent of the
Imperial Government with foreign powers other than the Orange Free
State. See p. 105, and full text in Appendix.
t Clause III., Agreement of May, 1894.
I70 ■ SOUTH AFRICA
ment was based upon a consideration of the conditions
of South Africa as a whole. Then for the first time the
eyes of her Majest/s Government were officially opened
to the existence of two facts which had from the first
governed the course of South African history, and which,
acting in combination, made the administration of South
Africa more difficult than that of any other colony or
dependency of the Empire, Yet these two facts were
plain enough to eyes which were not thus officially
blind, being nothing more than the natural desire of the
Europeans to possess themselves of fruitful and un-
occupied lands, and the natural property of the dark-
skinned people, to increase and multiply.
With certain other special conditions of South Africa
the Imperial Government had been acquainted from the
first. They were aware that the Europeans were not
the sole claimants to the soil ; that, on the contrary, every
step in advance taken by the colonists brought them
into more serious conflict with a numerous and courageous
race of dark-skinned people ; and they were inclined, at
least at one period, when the tide of philanthropic zeal
ran high in England, to over-estimate the value of the
claims advanced by the Bantu both in point of fact
and equity. They were aware, too, that the Europeans
were themselves divided into two nationalities, and that
the Dutch and English colonists were separated by differ-
ences of language, customs and character.
A knowledge of these conditions had been forced upon
the Imperial Government by the logic of facts. In the
one case the eastern frontier of the Cape Colony had
been maintained by a series of costly and disastrous
Kafir wars ; and in the other, a measure acceptable
enough to English sentiment, the abolition of slavery, had
produced the expatriation of many thousands of the
Dutch settlers.
Obviously this was a country which required the
CONFLICT OF NATIONALITIES AND RACES 171
establishment of a strong central power, for such an
authority could alone grasp the general conditions, and
control the political and social tendencies arising out
of them.
What prevented the Imperial Government from assuming
the responsibilities and exercising the rights of a paramount
power in South Africa was at first the feeling that no
adequate return could be expected from the necessary
expenditure of moral and material force. I speak now
of the period after the great emigration, when it had
become apparent that a central authority was necessary
to preserve the unity of the separate European com-
munities, and to effectively regulate the relationships of
those communities with each other and with the coloured
races, but before the commercial importance of the country
was recognised. This attitude was maintained — with in-
tervals of spasmodic activity — during the period between
the great emigration and the discovery of diamonds —
1 836-1 870. In plain words, it was not thought worth
while for England to assume the role of paramount power.
This was the impression in England. It was an erroneous
view, and one which was quite opposed to the best local
opinion.
In 1858 Sir George Grey wrote: —
" In recommending a remedy ... I would urge that
experience has shown that the views which led to the
dismemberment of South Africa were mistaken ones.
That in point of fact, Her Majesty's possessions here
are of great and yearly increasing value to the trade
and commerce of Great Britain, and may be made
valuable to an almost indefinite extent. That it has
now been conclusively shown that the people do not
desire Kafir wars ; that they are fully aware of the much
greater advantages they derive from the peaceful pursuits
of industry, and from cultivating their valuable exports." *
* Despatch to Sir E. B. Lytton, November 19th, 1858.
172 SOUTH AFRICA
Sir George Grey's remedy, of course, was the immediate
creation of a central authority by uniting the colonies
and now independent Dutch communities, founded by
the emigrant farmers, in a federal system.
During this period it would have been comparatively
easy to have established this central authority by means
of which the paramount rights of England could have
been effectively exercised. Subsequently, that is to say,
after the discovery of diamonds had produced a material
alteration in the attitude of England towards South Africa,
the Imperial Government were extremely anxious to
apply this " remedy " — federal union — of Sir George Grey.
But the difficulties of the situation had then enormously
increased.
At the same time mere lukewarmness and shortsighted-
ness on the part of the Imperial Government is not in
itself sufficient to account for the very special disasters,
and the general ineffectiveness, which has characterised
our administration of South Africa up to 1881 — the year
of the retrocession of the Transvaal. Indeed, after the
establishment of the diamond industry the Imperial
Government ceased to be lukewarm.
In order to explain this comparative failure we must
look deeper.
Up to this date the two authorities which should have
unitedly given effect to the power of England were in
constant conflict. The cause which lay at the root of
the endless " divergencies of opinion " between the home
and colonial authorities lay in the simple fact that the
information, or rather the data, upon which the respective
opinions of Downing Street and Capetown were founded,
was different. The home authorities were guided by
certain general principles, the colonial by a knowledge
of the actual facts of the case acquired locally and im-
possible to communicate. It is to this conflict between
*' the man in Downing Street " and " the man on the
CONFLICT OF NATIONALITIES AND RACES 173
spot " — whether a civil or military officer — that the
disasters suffered by the British arms, and the losses
incurred by the British treasury, are directly attributable.
It is this conflict, too, which has made South Africa "a
grave of reputations " for the colonial administrator.
Let us take some examples : —
After the colony had been cleared of the Kafirs who
had swept over the Eastern frontier in 1834-5, Sir
Benjamin Durban was of opinion that certain measures
were necessary for the future security of the colonists.
He proposed to grant lands between the Keiskamma
and the Fish Rivers to the settlers who had suffered most
in this and the preceding Kafir invasions. The object
of this proposal was at once to compensate the sufferers,
and at the same time to form " a belt of a dense European
population," in advance of the Fish River. He also pro-
posed to locate between the Keiskamma and the Kie a
body of loyal Kafirs who were to be at once controlled
and protected by a chain of forts occupied by a military
force. These measures were reversed by Lord Glenelg's
despatch of December 26th, 1835. The Imperial Govern-
ment were of opinion that the colonists and not the
Kafirs were the aggressors, and that future conflicts could
be avoided by a recognition of the claim of the Kafirs to
the country beyond the Fish River, and they, therefore,
ordered the evacuation of the country eastward of that
river.
In the year 1858, Sir George Grey was of opinion that
the application of the Orange River Free States for the
resumption of British authority over them should be
favourably entertained, and that a Federal Union might
be established between these States and the British
Colonies ; and that by means of this union the solidarity
of the Europeans in South Africa might be regained, and
the danger of future conflict between the Dutch and
English sections avoided.
174 SOUTH AFRICA
The Imperial Government decided " not to assent to
any project for the resumption of British sovereignty in
any shape over the Orange River Free States." They
were of opinion that Sir George Grey's action in en-
deavouring to reunite the Europeans in South Africa
" had so far compromised them, and endangered the
success of that poHcy which they must deem right and
expedient in South Africa, that his continuance in the
administration of the government of the Cape could be
no longer of service to public interests." *
In December 1878, Sir Bartle Frere was of opinion
that the necessity for immediate action against Ketshwayo
was so great as to render it impossible for him to incur
the delay which would have been involved in submitting
the terms of his ultimatum to the Imperial Government.
He wrote : — f
"The Zulus . • . had violated English territory, slain
persons under English protection, and had repeatedly
refused the redress which we demanded. Could a final
demand for redress on this account be postponed ? It
seems to me clearly not, with any safety to Natal and its
inhabitants."
He adds that this reference would have required a
delay of two months. These two months would not
have passed without " fresh manifestations of Zulu im-
patience," or an outbreak in the Transvaal, for ** whatever
were the chances of Zulu acquiescence, there was no
question of the bitter anger with which [the award] was
received in the Traansvaal."
The Imperial Government were of opinion that, not-
withstanding these circumstances, the delay should have
* Correspondence, etc., relative to recall of Sir George Grey.
Printed, April 17th, 1S60.
t Despatchf March 1st, 1S79. C— 2316.
CONFLICT OF NATIONALITIES AND RACES 175
been incurred ; and for this " indiscretion " Sir Bartle
Frere was partially superseded* and discredited.
Here are three crises in the history of South Africa in
which the Imperial Government and their representative
are in conflict.
The nett result of these endless divergencies of opinion
was, that the colonial administration never became
sufficiently stable to acquire and maintain for England
the position of a paramount power in South Africa, either
during the period when such a position might have been
naturally assumed, or afterwards.
The rapid development of the Cape Colony, which
succeeded the discovery of diamonds at Kimberley, estab-
lished the fact that South Africa was a country in which
British energy and capital might be profitably invested.
Nor was there any question now as to the evils which had
resulted from the dismemberment policy, and the necessity
for the creation of a central government to remedy them.
The indemnity paid to the Free State Government for the
trespass committed by the declaration of British authority
over the diamond fields, and the numerical increase of the
Bantu, together with the reported formation of fresh military
systems among them, afforded practical evidence on both
points. The Imperial Government, therefore, resolved to
take South Africa in hand, and establish, by means of a
federal union, the central authority which was the necessary
instrument for the exercise of its paramount rights.
But the difficulties were now enormously increased.
The Dutch element had advanced in power and solidarity,
the natives had multiplied and grown stronger, and there
was a danger of collision with Germany. The proposal to
unite the colonies and states of South Africa in a federal
union was unsuccessful, both when it was advanced under
the Imperial initiative of Lord Carnarvon, and again when
it was launched under the immediate control of the local
* By Lord Wolseley, as High Commissioner of South-East Africa.
176 SOUTH AFRICA
administrator, Sir Bartle Frere. And so the intention to
assume the position and responsibilities of a paramount
power at this time was defeated. The Imperial Govern-
ment were earnest enough in making the attempt. They
were no longer deterred by any shadowy dread of
unknown and unjustifiable responsibilities. Since the
time of the Sand River and Bloemfontein Conventions an
altogether higher and wider view of the Imperial destiny of
England had grown up in the minds of Englishmen and
their rulers. The head of the Imperial administration at
this time was Lord Beaconsfield, the one man who of all
others had done most, by stimulating a sense of national
responsibility, to direct the current of the Anglo-Saxon race
into a wider and more splendid course. But under com-
pulsion of the exigencies of party politics, Lord Beacons-
field's Government shrank back at the critical moment, from
fear of an expenditure of military force and tax-payers'
money, which, necessary as it was from the point of view
of South African interests, could not be justified in the
eyes of an electorate only partially informed of the facts of
the case. And the sequel ? It is already known to us.
An able and conscientious administrator was unjustly dis-
credited ; the union of South Africa was indefinitely post-
poned. The Imperial Government had put its hand to the
plough and looked back.
In the Bechuanaland Settlement (1884-5) the Imperial
Government for the first time assumed the responsibilities
of a paramount power, and in so doing they avoided the
mistake of 1854. At this period a fresh expansion of the
Europeans beyond the limits of the colonies and states took
place. But the communities of Stellaland and Land Goshen
were not allowed to grow into independent republics, nor
was the relationship between the settlers and the natives
left to adjust itself by natural methods — methods which
resolved themselves into the gradual extermination, or
practical enthralment, of the weaker race. Provision was
CONFLICT OF NATIONALITIES AND RACES 177
made for the inevitable disintegration of the native systems
produced by contact with civilisation. Where the chief
was strong and the tribe sufficiently cohesive, chief and
tribe were protected from premature interference ; where the
tribal organisation had already broken down, the magistrate
was introduced to take the place of the chief. In short, a
fnodus vivetidi was established under which the settlers and
the natives could live peaceably side by side, and mutually
benefit each other.
In 1889 the principle was again applied, and the Imperial
Government, as paramount power in South Africa, under-
took the task of regulating the expansion of the Europeans,
and controlling the consequent disintegration, and ultimate
civilisation, of the coloured races throughout the whole of
the immense region stretching northward to the Congo State.
In this case the Imperial Government have delegated the
immediate duty of organisation and administration to private
enterprise, but even under the present constitution of the
Chartered Company they are responsible for the final destiny
of this great accession to the Empire.
The purpose of this retrospect is to advance the
contention that the conflict of races and nationalities
in South Africa is not alone sufficient to account for
the unhappy separation of the Europeans, or the cruel
and costly process by which the supremacy of the Euro-
peans has been established over the native races. And
the inference I wish to suggest is hopeful, but not
unduly optimistic. It is that if the main cause of these
evils be that which I suggest, the repetition of these
evils can be checked, if not altogether prevented, in the
future.
The nationality difficulty of course exists, and the
native question exists ; but neither of these are insoluble
problems.
There is no inherent divergency between the Dutch
and English character sufficient to prevent the amalgama-
M
178 SOUTH AFRICA
tion of the two peoples. The Dutch in South Africa
have won the admiration of authorities as distinct as
the late Mr J. A. Froude and Mr Selous. Mr Froude
says of the Boers that they "of all human beings now
on this planet, correspond nearest to Horace's description
of the Roman peasant soldiers who defeated Pyrrhus
and Hannibal." * And Mr Selous has found " no people
in the world more genuinely kind and hospitable to
strangers than the South African Dutch in the Transvaal,
the Free State, or the Cape Colony " ; and is sure that
since they "possess in such an eminent degree so many
of the qualities that Englishmen profess to admire, the
two races would, with a better knowledge of one another,
soon shake off their mutual prejudices, and agree to work
together for the common good and advancement of the
best interests of South Africa." f These are weighty
opinions, but, apart from any such individual testimony,
a study of South African history shows us that the
" awkwardness " of the Franco-Dutch settlers and their
descendants is due far more to circumstances than to
nationality.
At the beginning of the century, when England assumed
the administration of the Europeans in South Africa,
these people had been cut off for more than a hundred
years from European influence, that is to say, from
civilisation. From that time onwards the quarrel of
the Boers has been against the Government as such,
and not against individual Englishmen. Pringle relates f
how " Groot Willem " Prinslo " came forth very good-
humouredly to shake hands, and drink to the better
acquaintance" of the very party of Albany settlers who
were about to take possession of the lands from which
this Prinslo and other Dutchmen had been dispossessed
* "Oceana," ch. iii. p. 37.
t " Travel and Adventure in Africa," p. 7.
1 "Narrative of a Residence in South Africa."
CONFLICT OF NATIONALITIES AND RACES 179
in consequence of their share in the " wicked and foolish "
Bezeidenhout rebeUion. Such instances might be multi-
pHed almost without end. A remarkable application of
the principle was made by Sir Evelyn Wood in his
telegraphic despatch to the Secretary for the Colonies
immediately after the cessation of hostilities in the
Transvaal Revolt : " Uneducated men mistrust Govern-
ments, but trust persons, therefore Roberts should go him-
self to Transvaal to get known by the people." * The
expatriation of the Boers again removed a large section
of the Dutch population from the influences of civilisa-
tion ; and the non-interference, or dismemberment, policy
perpetuated this isolation. It is not surprising, therefore,
that in South Africa to-day there should be a certain
antipathy between the " old," and the new " colonists,"
which is quite independent of any difference of nationality.
These old colonists who have been thus cut off for two
centuries from civilisation are, from a consciousness of
their own deficiencies, slow and cautious ; distrustful, if
not actually resentful, of the changes which are being
forced upon them. The new colonists, who come fresh
from the industrial centre of the world, are naturally
more enterprising, and they manifest a certain impatience
towards these men who cling so tenaciously to the soil
which they do so little to improve. But this antipathy
is being broken down. The moral intervals upon which
it is based are being diminished by the action of
two powerful levelling agencies — education and the rail-
way.
Mr Rhodes has, from the commencement of his career,
grasped the fact that what divides the Europeans in the
Cape Colony, and generally in South iVfrica, is not nation-
ality but education ; and additional merit belongs to his
public services, because the appeal for support to carry out
his measures has been addressed to all enlightened men
♦ C— 285S.
i8o SOUTH AFRICA
irrespective of nationality. By this policy he had, until the
date of the Jameson incursion, produced a partial union of
the Dutch and English parties in the Cape.
The question which lay at the root of the original separa-
tion of the Europeans in South Africa was the question of
slavery. The same cause threatened to rend apart the
United States of America, but there its operation was
prevented, and the national unity was maintained, at the
cost of a civil war. The question has disappeared in this
acute form, for, apart from the Conventions, no European
community could venture to maintain an institution which
has been condemned by the moral sense of the whole
civilised world. But the question of the treatment of the
natives, in the form of the admission or not of the coloured
people to political and civil rights, still constitutes the
main cause which tends to maintain the separation of the
Dutch and English. In the republics the coloured people
are entirely excluded from political, and partially excluded
from civil, rights. In the British colonies the principle of
political equality, irrespective of colour, is estabhshed.
Nor is the significance of this difference affected by the
fact that both in Natal and the Cape Colony limitations
have been introduced to prevent the abuse of such privi-
leges, for these limitations are the result of practical
experience, and as such they commend themselves to all
reasonable persons. In Natal a native must have lived
for seven years exempt from the control of the native laws
before he can avail himself of the several qualifications
which otherwise entitle him to take part in the government
of the colony. Similarly in the Cape Colony the applica-
tion of the general terms of the franchise to the native
population is limited by the two provisos — that no person
is entitled to be registered as a voter on account of sharing
in any native communal or tribal occupation of lands, nor
unless he is able to sign his name, and write his occupation
and address. Also in the "Cape Colony — where alone in
CONFLICT OF NATIONALITIES AND RACES i8i
South Africa the work of civiHsing the natives has sufficiently
advanced to make the question of immediate importance —
the distribution of seats is so arranged as to counterbalance
the enormous numerical superiority of the coloured races,
a superiority which might otherwise constitute a serious
menace to the well-being of the community in the future
(Note 26), Thus in the Eastern Province, which contains
the great mass of the native population (inclusive of the
Transkei territories), a member of the Legislative Council
is apportioned to mixed constituencies containing an
average of respectively 227,492 coloured people and
18,065 Europeans; and a member of the House of
Representatives is similarly apportioned to 56,873 natives
and 4516 Europeans. Whereas in the colony as a whole,
the average population represented by a single member
of the Legislative Council or House of Representatives
is, respectively, 69,352 and 20,076.* And, as a matter
of fact, there are few constituencies in which the native
vote has any weight. The Malays in and about Capetown,
the Hottentots of the Kat River Settlement, and the Kafirs
at King Williamstown, Fort Beaufort, and Alice, alone
command the attention of a Parliamentary candidate. In
the Transkei, where the natives are practically untouched
by civilisation, the grant of representatives has been
received with stolid indifference. " I do not think any
political impression whatever," says Mr H. G. Elliott,
Chief Magistrate of Tembuland, "has been produced
upon the native population of this territory by the return
of a member to the House of Assembly. I am confident
that not five per cent, know the meaning of it, and not
one per cent, care anything about it, and that the balance
only wish to be left as they are." f
Here we have approached another aspect of the Native
Question of South Africa. What will be the nature of the
* Tables of Director of Census (1891).
t Report in Cape Blue-book on Native Affairs, 1SS9.
1 82 SOUTH AFRICA
relationship — numerical, social, and political — which will
be ultimately established between the natives and the
Europeans ? The task of organising, controlling, and
educating the dense mass of rapidly increasing Bantu
which lies between the Cape Colony and Natal has been
assumed by the Cape Government, and it constitutes a
problem of which it is hard to over-estimate either the
intrinsic difficulty, or the importance to the civilised
world.
There is, however, this consideration, which is of a re-
assuring character. In the past the great disasters due
to the presence of the Bantu peoples have arisen from
movements which have taken place among tribes beyond
the control of the European Governments. Such move-
ments have been of two kinds — the formation of military
systems by ambitious and energetic chiefs, and the con-
sequent displacement of native populations. Formerly,
the European Governments, even when such movements
were known to them, were unable to interfere until the
evil was full grown and some unmistakable act of aggres-
sion had been committed, because these native tribes
and their chiefs were regarded by the Imperial Govern-
ment as independent powers, and had to be treated as
such. Henceforward, we may hope that such disasters
will not be repeated. For the withdrawal of the white
police, which gave the Matabele their opportunity, is a
special cause which is not likely to occur again. And
now from the Zambesi to Capetown there is a network of
European Magistracies, with officials whose duty it is to
watch and report the earliest signs of danger.
The Secretary for Native Affairs is the minister who
is specially charged with the difficult task of securing
the peaceful development of the native population within
the colonial boundary.
Mr Rhodes, who, until his resignation, occupied this
position in addition to the premiership, has endeavoured
CONFLICT OF NATIONALITIES AND RACES 183
to solve the problem by the Glen Grey Act (1894)
(Note 27).
In introducing this important measure Mr Rhodes said
that in the Transkei there were 600,000 Bantu, that in
about twenty years there would be 1,200,000, and that
the Transkei could not support such a population as this.
He also made the interesting statement that he was
personally responsible for some 2,000,000 African natives.
As Managing Director of the Chartered Company he was
responsible for half a million natives north of the Zambesi
and half a million south of the Zambesi ; and as Secretary
for Native Affairs he was responsible for one million natives
in the Cape Colony, He aimed, therefore, at the in-
troduction of a system which could be applied ultimately
throughout South and Central Africa. It should also
be noticed that Mr Rhodes is strongly opposed to the
encroachment of Europeans upon the native territories,
or to anything which might lead to the mixing of the
two races.
The objects and methods proposed by the Glen Grey
Act are these —
The overcrowding of natives upon the land is to be
prevented by the substitution of a system of allotments,
with rights of commonage, held under a regular title by
the head of a family and descending to the eldest son by
the law of entail, in place of locations held under com-
munal tenure.
The minds of the natives are to be occupied and their
faculties developed by the establishment of a simple
system of local government, consisting of village and
district councils. Mr Rhodes points out that, by the
control of civilised governments, the employment furnished
by war and councils of war has been taken away, and
nothing has so far been substituted in its place. By
these means, however, the natives will be able to occupy
themselves with matters "like bridges, roads, education,
1 84 SOUTH AFRICA
plantation of trees, and various local questions." * They
are also to be allowed to tax themselves for these local
purposes. In this way the Transkei will be able to pay
the cost of its own development. Mr Rhodes estimates
that in Fingoland a tax of ten shillings per allotment will
produce ;^9ooo per annum.
In order to provide a " gentle stimulus to come forth
and find the dignity of labour," the idle young males,
that is to say, those who have no white employers, are
to pay a labour tax of los. per head. The proceeds of
this tax are to be devoted to industrial schools and train-
ing, and so " the neglect of labour will provide a focus
for instruction in labour." By this means, also, the labour
market of the colony will be replenished, and the prospects
of agriculture materially improved.!
The " liquor pest " is to be removed. Power is given
to the District Councils to close the canteens, but the
several districts must tax themselves to raise funds for
compensating the canteen-holders.
To prevent disturbances it is proposed to apply the
bill gradually. At first its application was limited to
the Glen Grey area and to Fingoland ; and its subsequent
extension depended upon the results observed in these
districts.^ The ultimate success of the measure, of course,
can only be demonstrated by time and experience ; but
in breadth of principle it is a great advance upon any
previous native legislation ; and it is an experiment which
will be closely watched.
Fortunately South Africa is by no means deficient in
public men. The difficulties of the situation have formed
an excellent training school in politics, for in no other
• Report in the Cape Weekly A7-giis, July 26, 1894.
t Mr Rhodes compares the wages of the coloured labour in the Cape
Colony — 2s. and 2s. 6d. a day — with those of coloured labour in Egypt
and the Niger Protectorate, where it is respectively, 2d. and 4d. a day.
X It has since been announced that the Government have extended
the Act to three new districts.
CONFLICT OF NATIONALITIES AND RACES 185
colony or dependency of the Empire do more various or
more important problems arise. And these difificulties
have produced public men of commensurate ability.
Apart from Mr Rhodes, the names of Sir Henry de
Villiers, the late President Brand, and Mr Hofmeyr at
once present themselves.
It is to such men and others like them that the consoli-
dation of the Europeans and the education of the natives
— the two great tasks which lie before the Europeans
in South Africa — must be entrusted.
One thing at least we may expect and require, that in
the future the progress of South Africa may not be
hindered by any such grave divergencies of opinion
between the Imperial and Colonial authorities as have
happened in the past. The possibility of such divergencies
unhappily exists, but the danger of their occurrence has
been largely diminished by the establishment of cable
communication,* and by the increased and increasing
speed of the ocean-going steamships which bridge the
interval between England and her daughter States, and
make it possible for the representatives of the Colonial
and Imperial Governments to meet in frequent conference.
And when the schoolmaster and the railway have done
their work ; when the old sores have been healed, and
the old antipathies forgotten, what will be the character
of the Africander race ? It should be courageous, strenu-
ous, and patriotic : for it will need these qualities to fulfil
its destiny. Courage to maintain its supremacy over the
coloured races nurtured in its borders ; strenuousness to
overcome the natural deficiencies, and use to the full the
natural advantages of the land of its adoption ; and an
intense patriotism to keep itself free from the insidious
effects of constant association with a race lower than
itself in the scale of humanity.
* This was done in June 18S0, after Isandlhwana.
CHAPTER XI.
South African Literature.
TN proposing to discuss South African literature as a part
-*■ of South African life — that is to say, of the life of the
English colonists — we are confronted at the outset by
a difficulty. The political unity of the Anglo-Saxon race
has been lost, but its literary unity is unquestioned.
Shakespeare and Milton belong as much to the United
States of America, or the commonwealth of Australia, as
to England : the literary heritage of which they form part
is a common possession of the English under whatever
sky they live. In the face of this obvious fact, must not
any distinction which is drawn between writers in England
and writers beyond the seas be purely artificial, or one
which would most suitably be considered among distinctions
which are based upon conditions which are merely part of
the personality of the author ?
On the other hand, we must remember that this very
Elizabethan and Stuart literature was itself the outcome of
a period of national expansion, similar in character to the
Victorian expansion, though it was infinitely less rapid and
far-reaching. In spite, then, of this difficulty, we must try
to form some definite conception of colonial or extra-insular
literature. This conception will be more of the nature of
a working hypothesis than a definition, but without some-
thing of the kind, however tentative, we shall not be able
to make any advance at all in the enquiry we have in
hand. It will clear the ground a little if we decide first of
all what a work of this class is not.
x86
SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE 187
In order, then, to be included in this class it is not
necessary that the novel or poem, as the case may be,
should be the work of a " colonial-born " author. That
requirement would exclude from our list such characteristic
novels as those of Marcus Clarke, the author of " For the
Term of his Natural Life," and of Mr Thomas Alexander
Browne, the author of " Robbery under Arms," and such
characteristic poetry as that of Adam Lindsay Gordon.
All of these authors would be disqualified by this test,
although one of them, Mr Browne, was only three years
old when he reached Sydney, and the other two arrived in
Australia before they were twenty-one.
Nor is it sufficient that the work should show a special
knowledge of the locality in which the scene is laid, or of
the social and material conditions which govern the action
of the persons. For that would include the "historical
novel " and the " novel of adventure " as such.
What gives individuality to authors of the class we are
proposing to consider is the capacity to reproduce the
spirit, and not merely the letter of colonial life, or better,
of the life of the English outside of England. In its
broadest aspect this will be the hfe of the Anglo-Saxon
race, when the blood of its sons is stirred with strife, and
their faces are flushed with victory over the forces of nature
and alien races, or their teeth set tight in defiance of the
inevitable. The fiction which reflects this life is marked
by a note of freedom with which is associated a certain
natural materialism, born of cloudless skies and virgin
lands ; its poetry, by a fierce realism which glories in the
worst, whether that worst be the result of physical conflict
or mental anguish. For in this struggle our race is at its
best and at its worst ; and the eyes of the spectators are
quickly opened to the realities of existence.
In two such characteristic works as " Robbery under
Arms," and "The Story of an African Farm," the leading
motive is a revolt against society. The former is a book
1 88 SOUTH AFRICA
of action, and in it the will of society is defied in its
external form of law : the latter is a book of thought, and
the revolt here is against " convention," that is to say, the
rules by which society regulates its inner life, and which
are based upon no definite physical sanction. The wider
charity which makes both these authors recognise, and
emphasise, an underlying morality in immoral action, is
a reflex of the wider social and material conditions of
colonial and extra-insular life. In England men are
enclosed in grooves, in the Australian colonies an efficient
democracy has produced a fusion of ranks, in India and
South Africa, and in other countries which present a
career, the personal element is more powerful, and in
all the material of social life is less closely compacted.
In extra-insular poetry there is also a distinctive note,
and, although such poetry is, naturally, to a large extent
concerned with the imperial aspects of the life of the
English, this characteristic feeling is not dependent upon
subject. Tennyson deals with the imperial destiny of
England —
" The loyal to their crown
Are loyal to their own far sons, who love
Our ocean-empire with her boundless homes
For ever broadening England, and her throne
In our vast Orient, and one isle, one isle
That knows not her own greatness : if she knows
And dreads it we are fall'n." *
Matthew Arnold is characteristically touched by the pathos
of the situation ; by the contrast between the toiling
millions and the splendour of the political edifice they are
unconsciously erecting ; an edifice too splendid for them to
understand, and one in which neither they nor their
children will dwell. Under the influence of this thought,
England becomes the " Weary Titan," who already
staggers under the burden of empire.
* Dedication to the Queen : Idylls of the King.
SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE 189
But the spirit in which these utterances are conceived is
quite distinct from the spirit which pervades the poetry
which, in default of a better name, I call extra-insular, when
it is concerned with the like subjects.
Take, for example, Tennyson's Defence of Liccknoiv,
and in particular the two lines —
" Handful of men as we were, we were English in heart and limb,
Strong with the strength of the race to command, to obey, to endure ; "
and compare it with Mr Rudyard Kipling's Ballad of
East and West, in which the same pride of race is
set forth in a more subtle and triumphant form — a form in
which the comparison is expressed by emphasising points
not of contrast, but of similarity, and at the same time
suggesting a wide field of superiority. In the pursuit of the
stolen horse the reckless daring that matches the temper
of the chief of the Border thieves is shown by the " Colonel's
son " ; the honourable reluctance to slay an enemy who is
completely in his power comes from Kamal. And so,
Kamal the Border chief not only surrenders the favourite
horse, but sends his son " to eat the white Queen's meat,"
and become a " man of the Guides " —
" Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet,
Till earth and sky stand presently at God's great judgment seat ;
But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,
When two strong men stand face to face, tho' they come from the ends
of the earth I "
That is a verse which could only have been written by
a man who is sensitive to influences which pulsate but faintly
in our island air, who has been born in a day of Ilbert Bills;
a day when the native press of India surrounds the page
which contains an account of the farewell ceremonies of
a popular Viceroy with a band of gold ; a day in which
an Indian gentleman represents a metropolitan constituency
in the House of Commons.
190 SOUTH AFRICA
Or compare the " grand air " of the verse —
" We sailed wherever ship could sail,
We founded many a mighty state,
Pray God our greatness may not fail
Through craven fear of being great."
with the fierce realism which characterises Mr Rudyard
Kiphng's presentation of the ocean predominance of
England in his poem The English Flag. Here, in
answer to the poet's invocation, the four winds declare,
each in their turn, what they know of the flag, which is so
little known, and so lightly esteemed, by the English in
England. The same quality runs through the whole
poem, but perhaps it shows most clearly in the reply of the
West Wind—
"The West Wind called : — " In squadrons the thoughtless galleons fly
That bear the wheat and cattle lest street-bred people die.
They make my might their porter, they make my home their path,
Till I loose my neck from their rudder and whelm them all in my wrath.
I draw the gliding fog-bank as a snake is drawn from the hole.
They bellow one to the other, the frighted ship bells toll.
For day is a drifting terror till I raise the shroud with my breath,
And they see strange bows above them and the two go locked in death.
But whether in calm or wrack-wreath, whether by dark or day,
I heave them whole to the conger or rip their plates away,
First of the scattered legions, under a shrieking sky.
Dipping between the rollers, the English Flag goes by.
The dead dumb fog hath wrapped it — the frozen dews have kissed —
The naked stars have seen it, a fellow star in the mist.
What is the Flag of England ? Ye have but my breath to dare,
Ye have but my waves to conquer. Go forth, for it is there."
Now, let us glance for a moment at the work of Adam
Lindsay Gordon. The subject is a very commonplace
one, but I think we can recognise a distinctive value
in the poem ; that, in short, it possesses the characteristic
feeling which separates it, and poems of this class, from
the general mass of English poetry. It is the death of
SOUTH AFRICAN TJTERATURE 191
the outcast in the AustraHan bush. As The Sick
Stockrider looks back he forgets the material hardships
of the past, and remembers only its pleasures —
•' 'Twas merry in the glowing morn, amid the gleaming grass,
To wander as we've wandered many a mile,
And blow the cool tobacco cloud, and watch the white wreaths pass,
Sitting loosely in the saddle all the while.
'Twas merry 'mid the blackwoods when we spied the station roofs,
To wheel the wild scrub cattle at the yard,
With a running fire of stock-whips, and a fiery run of hoofs ;
Oh, the hardest day was never then too hard ! "
Then he faces the present —
" Let me slumber in the hollow where the wattle blossoms wave,
With never stone or rail to fence my bed ;
Should the sturdy station children pull the bush flowers on my grave,
I may chance to hear them romping overhead.
I don't suppose I shall tho', for I feel like sleeping sound ;
That sleep, they say, is doubtful. True ; but yet
At least it makes no difference to the dead man underground.
What the living men remember or forget.
Enigmas that perplex us in the world's unequal strife
The future may ignore or may reveal.
Yet some as weak as water, Ned ! to make the best of life,
Have been to face the worst, as true as steel." *
Among South African authors two names are pre-
eminent, Thomas Pringle and Olive Schreiner. Both
of these authors have made contributions to English
literature of permanent value, and both satisfy, though
in different ways, the conception of colonial, or extra-
insular, literature which I have tentatively advanced.
Pringle was born at Kelso in 1789. He came to South
Africa as the leader of the " Scotch party " in the Albany
Settlement of 1820. Afterwards he removed to Capetown,
and took part in the struggle for the freedom of the
colonial press which signalised the arbitrary administration
of Lord Charles Somerset. Subsequently, in 1826, he
returned to England, and became the secretary of the
Society for the Abolition of Slavery. He died on
* This is the original stanza.
192 SOUTH AFRICA
December 5th, 1834, little more than a year after the
efforts of the society had been crowned by the passing
of the Abolition Act.
Pringle, therefore, was only a very short time — some
six years — resident in South Africa, but his characteristic
work is South African. His inspiration, with few ex-
ceptions, comes from the Karoo, from the barren ranges
and deep valleys of Kaffraria, and from the life of the
settlers and the coloured people. His best known poem
is Afar ifi the Desert, and of this poem Coleridge has
written, with what at this period of time seems dispropor-
tionate warmth, " I do not hesitate to declare it among
the two or three most perfect lyrics in our language."
To us the merit of the poem lies in the descriptive power
which it reveals. As a picture of the Karoo it is singularly
true both in expression and feeling, but the lyric exaltation
is not there.
" Afar in the desert I love to ride,
With the silent Bush-boy alone by my side :
Away — away — in the wilderness vast,
Where the White Man's foot hath never passed,
And the quivered Coranna or Bechuan
Hath rarely crossed with his roving clan :
A region of emptiness, howling and drear,
Which man hath abandoned from famine and fear ;
Which the snake and the lizard inhabit alone,
With the twilight bat from the yawning stone ;
Where grass, nor herb, nor shrub takes root,
Save poisonous thorns that pierce the foot ;
And the bitter-melon, for food and drink,
Is the pilgrim's fare by the salt lake's brink :
A region of drought where no river glides,
Nor rippling brook with osiered sides ;
Where sedgy pool, nor bubbling fount,
Nor tree, nor cloud, nor misty mount.
Appears, to refresh the aching eye :
But the barren earth, and the burning sky,
And the blank horizon round and round.
Spread — void of living sight and sound."
Otherwise the poetic value of his work is not high.
SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE 193
Traces of the influence of Scott, his poetic master, are
everywhere apparent. Perhaps the best individual poem
is the Softg of the Wild Bushman.
" My yoke is the quivering assagai,
My rein the tough bow-string ;
My bridle curb is a slender barb —
Yet it quells the forest king.
The crested adder honoureth me,
And yields at my command
His poison bag, like the honey bee,
When I seize him on the sand.
Yea, even the wasting locust swarm.
Which mighty nations dread,
To me nor terror brings nor harm —
For I make of them my bread."
Here and there we find isolated couplets which are
powerful : such, for example, as the lines in the Caffer
Commando —
" For England hath spoke in her tyrannous mood,
And the edict is written in African blood."
Or those in Evening Rambles —
" And the aloe rears her crimson crest,
Like stately queen for gala drest. "
It is the descriptive merit which appears in these last
lines — and in the poem of which they form part — which
gives his poetry its value. We have seen it in the
picture of the desert ; it is equally noticeable in his descrip-
tion of the bare, serrated ridges which are charactefistic
of the South African mountain ranges —
" Sterile mountains rough and steep,
That bound abrupt the valley deep,
Heaving to the clear blue sky
Their ribs of granite, bare and dry.
And ridges by the torrents worn.
Thinly streaked with scraggy thorn."
194 SOUTH AFRICA
It is present, too, in his cameos of the natives. In
The Hottentot—
" Mild, melancholy, and sedate, he stands,
Tending another's flock upon the fields,
His fathers' once, where now the white man builds
His home, and issues forth his proud commands."
And in The Caffer —
" Lo ! where he crouches by the cleugh's dark side,
Eying the farmer's lowing herds afar ;
Impatient watching till the evening star
Lead forth the twilight dim, that he may glide
Like panther to the prey. With free born pride
He scorns the herdsman, nor regards the scar
Of recent wound — but burnishes for war
His assagai and targe of buffalo-hide."
Mrs Cronwright Schreiner, the authoress of " The Story
of an African Farm," is the daughter of a Lutheran
minister at Capetown. One of her brothers, Mr Advocate
Schreiner, after graduating at the Cape University, pro-
ceeded to Cambridge, where, in 1882 I beUeve, he was
placed by the examiners first in the first class of the
Law Tripos, and afterwards elected a fellow of Downing.
Quite recendy he served for some time as Attorney-General
in Mr Rhodes' ministry. At the time the " Story of an
African Farm " was written, now fifteen years ago, Olive
Schreiner was exceedingly young; and she was actually
living among the surroundings which are so faithfully
reproduced.
The key to the book is to be found in a remark which
the boy Waldo makes, when the children are discussing
the history of Napoleon : " The brown history tells only
what he did, not what he thought."
It is a book of " thought." In its external aspect the
first part is a study of child-life, and the second an
essay in woman's rights ; while the whole contains a
picture of the growth of a soul — of a woman's soul — closely
SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE 195
associated with the philosophic conception of the growth
of the kosmos, or gradual enlargement of the area of the
sense-perceptions both of the race and of the individual.
Its faults of structure, its incompleteness, its strange gaps,
seem to reflect the physical characteristics of the Karoo,
and the social and material conditions under which it
was written.
A youthful, and therefore impressionable, but well-stored
mind, was suddenly thrown back upon itself by a singular
monotony of physical and social surroundings. To these
conditions are due the unusual union of introspective
analysis, with vivid, almost photographic presentation of
character, and of certain aspects of nature. Moreover,
under these conditions, certain states of mind, which are
ordinarily forgotten, or passed over, both in real life and
in the delineation of that life by the novelist, assume a
substantive and definite form. People who live in cities,
or within the reach of city influences, do not pay much
attention to "dreams" and "reveries"; but there is an
actual predominance of dreams and reveries and com-
munings with nature in Olive Schreiner's work.
Of the value of the thought which this book contains
in relation to the development of woman it is sufficient to
say that in " Lyndall " we have the immediate prototype
of the heroine of a large class of recent novels. In re-
viewing these novels collectively under the title of " The
Novel of the Modern Woman," a sympathetic critic*
says, "Who could have foreseen that the new, and in
many respects the most distinctive note of the literature
of the last decade of the nineteenth century, would be
sounded by a little chit of a girl reared in the solemn
stillness of the Karoo, in the solitude of the African
bush? The Cape has indeed done yeoman's service to
the English speaking world. To that pivot of the empire
* Mr Stead, in the Review of Reviews^ July 1894.
196 SOUTH AFRICA
we owe our most pronounced type of the imperial man
and of the emancipated woman."
Not the least valuable for us is its faithful and vivid
portrayal of rural life in the Cape Colony, and in particular
of the character of the Boer,
To begin, let us observe how nature is drawn in its most
characteristic aspect in South Africa.
, First the long period of drought —
'' From end to end of the land the earth cried for
water. Man and beast turned their eyes to the pitiless
sky, that, like the roof of some brazen oven, arched over-
head. On the farm, day after day, month after month,
the water in the dams fell lower and lower ; the sheep
died in the fields ; the cattle, scarcely able to crawl,
tottered as they moved from spot to spot in search of
food. Week after week, month after month, the sun
looked down from the cloudless sky, till the Karoo
bushes were leafless sticks, broken into the earth, and
the earth itself was naked and bare ; and only the milk
bushes, like old hags, pointed their shrivelled fingers
heavenwards, praying for the rain that never came." *
Then the torrential rain —
" Outside the rain poured ; a six months' drought had
broken, and the thirsty plain was drenched with water.
What it could not swallow ran off in mad rivulets to the
great * sloot ' that now foamed like an angry river across
the flat. Even the little furrow between the farmhouse
and the Kraals was now a stream, knee-deep, which almost
bore away the Kafir women who crossed it. . . . The
fowls had collected, a melancholy crowd, in and about
the waggon-house, and the solitary gander, who alone
had survived the six months' want of water, walked hither
and thither, printing his webbed foot-marks on the mud,
* P, 12. Ed. of 1S94.
SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE 197
to have them washed out the next instant by the pelting
rain." *
And afterwards the " princely day " which follows the
breaking of the drought —
"The long morning had melted slowly into a rich
afternoon. Rains had covered the Karoo with a heavy
coat of green that hid the red earth everywhere. In the
very chinks of the stone walls dark green leaves hung
out, and beauty and growth had crept even into the beds
of the sandy furrows and lined them with weeds." t
Then there is the farmhouse on the Karoo and its
inhabitants. In spite of the strangeness of the surround-
ings, how familiar the author has made it all ; and how
well we seem to know the chief personages of the story.
Tant' Sannie, the Boer woman, with her grossness of
person and language ; Em and Lyndall, the two little
English girls whose dead father married Tant' Sannie
to provide them with a protector ; the kindly old German
overseer and his son Waldo ; the vagabond Englishman
who supplants him : Greg, who takes half the farm off
Em's hands when she has grown up ; even the Hottentot
maids and the Kafirs, the Boer visitors, and the strangers
who come and go — all assume reality under the deft
portraiture of Olive Schreiner.
Tant' Sannie does not occupy much space upon the
canvas, but the figure is distinct and vigorous. As she
sits in her elbow chair, sipping her coffee, with her feet
comfortably resting upon the wooden stove, and her
Hottentot maid in attendance, she seems to personify
the Africander Dutch in every inch of her huge frame.
Apart from her external appearance she displays the
typical mental attitude in its two characteristic traits —
she is superstitious, and averse to change. For this
gross creature, in spite of her violent language and
material philosophy, "was a firm believer in the chinks
• P. 270. t P. 334.
1 98 SOUTH AFRICA
in the world above, where not only ears, but eyes, might
be applied to see how things went on in this world below.
She never felt sure how far the spirit world might overlap
this world of sense, and, as a rule, prudently abstained
from doing anything which might offend unseen auditors." *
Equally characteristic is her reproval of Em for using
soda, instead of milk-bushes, to make soap.
" Not that I believe in this new plan of putting soda
in the pot. If the dear Father had meant soda to be put
into soap, what would he have made milk-bushes for, and
stuck them all over the ' veld ' as thick as lambs in the
lambing season ? "
And again : —
"'J/}' mother boiled soap with bushes, and I will boil
soap with bushes. If the wrath of God is to fall upon
this land,' said Tant' Sannie, with the serenity of conscious
virtue, ' it shall not be through me. Let them make their
steam-waggons and their fire-carriages : let them go on as
though the dear Lord didn't know what he was about
when he gave horses and oxen legs — the destruction of
the Lord will follow them. I don't know how such people
read their Bibles. When do we hear of Moses or Noah
riding in a railway ? '" f
The grotesque use of Biblical phraseology is one of the
results of the long isolation of the Boers from civilising
influences. Neither Tant' Sannie's language nor her
demeanour is overdrawn : on the contrary, both can be
matched by a discussion which took place, less than two
years ago, in the Transvaal Volksraad, when a proposal
to co-operate with the Governments of the Free State and
Cape Colony in destroying the locusts was violently opposed
on the ground that the locusts "were a plague sent by
God, as in the days of King Pharaoh."
* V. 83. t Pp. 33(3-7.
SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE 199
Of the other characters, and of the story into which
their several fortunes are woven, I can only speak very
briefly.
The first of the two parts into which the book is divided
is, as I have already said, a study of child-life in a South
African setting : of the life of Waldo, the German boy,
and of the two little English girls, Em and Lyndall. Em
is to have the farm when she is seventeen, but Lyndall
will have nothing, and therefore she makes up her mind
to go to school. In reply to Em's pitying generosity, she
says —
" ' I do not want your sheep ; I want things of my own.
When I am grown up,' she added, the flush on her delicate
features deepening at every word ; * there will be nothing
that I do not know. I shall be rich, very rich, and I
shall wear not only for best but every day a pure white
silk, and little rosebuds like the lady in Tant' Sannie's
bedroom.' " *
The life of the great world is borne in upon these
children in a curiously distorted fashion through the sole
medium of books. They have read of Napoleon, and
in discussing his life Lyndall says —
" ' I have noticed that it is only the made-up stories
that end nicely ; the true ones all end so.'
" As she spoke the boy's dark, heavy eyes rested on her
face.
'* * You have read it, have you not ? '
" He nodded. ' Yes ; but the brown history tells only
what he did, not what he thought.'
" ' It was in the brown history that I read of him,' said
the girl ; ' but I know what he thought. Books do not
tell everything.'
" * No,' said the boy, slowly drawing nearer to her, and
• P. 14.
200 SOUTH AFRICA
sitting down at her feet, ' what you want to know they
never tell.' " *
It is this inner life that is described, and the gradual
awakening of the conscious being : its agonies and dis-
appointments, and its final compromise, when " this thing
we call existence " is realised to be no longer " a chance
jumble," but "a living thing, a one.''
" And so it comes to pass in time that the earth ceases
for us to be a weltering chaos. We walk in the hall of
the universe, our soul looking up and round reverentially.
Nothing is despicable — all is meaning-full ; nothing is
small — all is part of a whole, whose beginning and end
we know not. The life which throbs in us is a pulsation
from it ; too mighty for our comprehension, not too small.
" And so it comes to pass at last, that whereas the sky
was at first a small blue rag stretched out over us, and
so low that our hands might touch it, pressing down on
us, it raises itself into an immeasurable blue arch over
our heads, and we begin to live again." f
The second part is occupied with the tragedies of their
lives, mainly that of Lyndall. Into these I have not time
to enter now ; yet neither as children, nor afterwards, are
they characters that are likely to be forgotten. There is
Waldo, with his " silky black curls " and uncouth move-
ments, with his infinite yearnings after the unseen, and
his infinite anguish in the material world. And Em and
Greg — well, they are Em and Greg. These homely
diminutives sufficiently indicate the comparative common-
placeness of their respective characters and fortunes. And
Lyndall, how could we forget Lyndall, with her frailty of
person and strength of will, with her worldly philosophy
and unworldly action ? Lyndall is the favourite child of
the author. She is endowed with a personal charm that
nothing can dispel — not even the equivocal position in
• P. i8. t P. 52.
SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE 201
which she has at last placed herself. We are never told
in so many words in what her beauty consists, but we
know that her face had that highest form of beauty,
beauty of expression, "the harmony between that which
speaks from within, and the form through which it speaks."
I have spoken of the incompleteness, of the strange
gaps, which characterise the work. This deficient con-
struction, the absence of any subordination of the parts to
the whole, or of the lesser characters to any central action,
is nowhere more conspicuous than in the treatment of
Lyndall's " stranger."
On this point the author has explained herself in the
preface to the second edition.
" Human life," she says, " may be painted according
to two methods. There is the stage method. According
to that, each character is duly marshalled at first, and
ticketed ; we know with an immutable certainty that at
the right crisis each one will reappear, and act his part,
and, when the curtain falls, all will stand before it bowing.
There is a sense of satisfaction in this, and of complete-
ness. But there is another method — the method of the
life we all lead. Here nothing can be prophesied. There
is a strange coming and going of feet. Men appear, act
and re-act upon each other, and pass away. When the
crisis comes the man who would fit it does not return.
When the curtain falls, no one is ready. When the foot-
lights are brightest they are blown out ; and what the
name of the play is no one knows. . . Life may be painted
according to either method ; but the methods are different.
The canons of criticism that bear upon the one cut
cruelly upon the other."
Well, the author ought to know how her book was written,
but, apart from this, the book tells its own story. She has
written it so because it actually happened so. Construc-
tively it is not, it was never intended to be, a work of
art : it is a bit of real life, a record of experience, a
202 SOUTH AFRICA
human document. Lyndall's stranger is indicated in this
shadowy form because it was only in this shadowy form
that he existed in the author's mind. The Boer woman,
Em, Greg, Waldo, the coloured people — all these she
has actually seen, and she has drawn them as she saw
them : the stranger she has imagined, and his picture
contains just so much as could assume substance in her
mind.
There is another branch of South African literature
upon which I must say a word.
It is somewhat remarkable that, while colonial fiction
and colonial poetry is read in England, no account is
taken of the skill exhibited in political essay-writing.
And yet the success achieved by colonial writers is more
general, and relatively higher, in this than in any other
branch of letters. It would be strange if this were other-
wise, for as Amiel, the Genevan, has pointed out, democracy
tends to develop the individual upon political lines. " On
things," he says, " its effect is unfavourable, but on the
other hand, men profit by it, for it develops the individual
by obliging everyone to take an interest in a multitude of
questions." Among works of this class in South Africa
we have Cloete's " Five Lectures on the Emigration of
the Dutch Farmers," and the late Judge Watermeyer's
" Three Lectures on the Cape of Cood Hope under the
government of the Dutch East India Company." The
difficult circumstances under which the colonisation of
South Africa by the Europeans has been effected present
a wide field to the historian, and, apart from the monu-
mental work of Mr Theal, we find a group of colonial
writers who have devoted themselves to the useful task
of recording the work of past generations of colonists for
the benefit and instruction of the present.
In this connection it is necessary to make some mention
of the Cape University. The University of the Cape of
Good Hope was incorporated in 1873, and obtained its
SOUTH AFRICAN LITERATURE 203
charter in 1877. It is the crown of a remarkably complete
and effective system of national education ; and although
its teaching staff is distributed among the various colleges,
there is a sufficient amount of academic work to be trans-
acted at its head-quarters at Capetown to render the
University circle a distinct stimulus to the literary enter-
prize of the colony.
But the work of Olive Schreiner stands out conspicuous,
if not unique, not only in South Africa, not only through-
out the British Colonies, but throughout the English-
speaking world. If we ask to what special element this
pre-f;minence is due, we can find the answer in that re-
markable chapter which contains the Allegory of the Search
for Truth. *
" The attribute of all art, the highest and the lowest, is
this — that it says more than it says and takes you away
from itself. It is a little door that opens into an infinite
hall where you may find what you please. Men, thinking
to detract, say, ' People read more in this or that work
of genius than was ever written in it,' not perceiving that
they pay the highest compliment."
It is this attribute of art that is conspicuous in " The
Story of an African Farm." Its literary merit is due, not
to its realism, not to its discussion of a social problem, but
to its suggestiveness ; in short, to its possession of this
highest quality of art, to speak directly to the mind, not
by reason but through the imagination.
• Part II. ch. 2.
CHAPTER XI L
The Chartered Company and Mr Cecil Rhodes.
TI^OLLOWING the precedent established by Napoleon,
-^ when — now a hundred years ago — P^ron, the
naturalist, was sent to report upon the Antipodean settle-
ment of Botany Bay, the French Government have lately
despatched Monsieur Lionel D^cle on a scientific mission
to Africa. With the general results of the observations
made by the explorer during his journey from Capetown
to Uganda we are not specially concerned : he has
however, with the aptitude of the French mind for rapid
generalisation, provided us with a happy phrase to char-
acterise the field of the Chartered Company's operations —
" The pick of Central Africa on both sides of the Zambesi."
But we are dealing with a country which is not only
physically but historically attractive. Apart from the in-
terest which attaches to the scene of a great colonising
effort, the territories now opened up by the Company
possess two strong claims upon our attention, the great
River Zambesi and the ruins of Zimbabwe.
The special objective of the Company's operations *
is the high plateau which stretches for 300 miles, at an
* The Company's "field of operations" extends from the Molojx)
River to the Congo State, over an area of 750,000 square miles.
Matabeleland and Mashonaland have been provided with an adminis-
trative system similar to that of a Crown Colony ; and the Company
assume the administration of the country north of the Zambesi (except
Nyasaland) under the Agreement of November 4th, 1S94. Under the
Charter the Cumpany have the sole right to obtain concessions of land
and minerals in the Bechuanaland Protectorate. The military forces
of the Company are under the direct control of the Imperial Govern-
ment. I'ut see Chapter XIV'.
204
THE CHARTERED COMPANY 205
elevation varying from 4000 to upwards of 5000 feet, in
a north-easterly direction from Buluwayo to Umtali, and
forms the watershed of the Zambesi on the north, and
the Sabi and Limpopo on the south. It is here in the
uplands of Matabeleland and Mashonaland that the
political and social interest, the colonising interest in
fact, centres.
Northward our attention is attracted by the Zambesi,
a river second only to the Nile among the rivers of
Africa in geographical significance.
The interest of the Zambesi culminates in the Victoria
Falls. Here, at a point midway in its eastward course,
when its stream is more than a mile broad and its waters
so placid that they assume the appearance of a lake,
the Zambesi encounters a strange obstacle. A rock-
bound channel, 400 feet deep and 300 feet wide, stretches
across the whole breadth of its stream and then doubles
sharply backwards, leaving a wedge-shaped platform of
rock level with the surface of the upper waters. Into
this channel the Zambesi flings its waters down the
perpendicular wall of rock. The effects which accompany
this physical tour de force — the thunderous noise with
which the waters fall over the precipice and crash to-
gether in the narrow channel ; the chromatic brilliancy
of the play of sunlight upon spray-clouds ; the glimpses
of the island-studded palm-fringed river seen through
the shifting curtain of mist at dawn or sunrise, when
every chromatic value is raised to a point of brilliancy
reached only during the rapid approach or rapid with-
drawal of the tropical sun — can be imagined but not
described.
The regions in which the historic interest centres lie
eastward of the Mashonaland plateau. The venerable
ruins on the Lunde River and at Zimbabwe record the
scene of the Semitic colonisation undertaken, probably
under Phoenician auspices, in the era of King Solomon.
2o6 SOUTH AFRICA
Its object was, of course, commercial : to work the gold
mines, to trade with the natives in ivory and ostrich
feathers. The ruins of the temple-fortress of Zimbabwe
lie 20 miles east of Fort Victoria. The methods of
building, the scientific and religious motives of the
architectural design, clearly indicate the presence of a
race superior in civilisation to any native African people.
This superior race is identified by Mr Theodore Bent
with the Sabeaans,* and their sphere of operations with
the Ophir of the Bible.
On the coast, in a line due east from Zimbabwe is Sofala,
the first point of Africa south of the Equator occupied
by the Europeans. These earliest European colonists
were the Portuguese ; but here in Africa, as in India,
they had been forestalled by the Arabian merchants.
In 1497 Vasco da Gama, in the course of his voyage
to India, found Arab traders established on the east
coast of Africa; and when, in 1505, Alvarez occupied
Sofala, it is mentioned that two Arab dhows were lying
there ladened with gold.f
The existence of the Zimbabwe ruins was known to
the Portuguese, and the district in which they were
situated was termed Monomotapa, but in Mr Bent's opinion
the Portuguese themselves never penetrated so far inland,
and their information was based upon the reports of the
Moorish traders. The first European who saw the
Zimbabwe ruins was the German explorer, Karl Mauch.
The discovery took place in 187 1, but, unfortunately, he
maintained that " the fortress on the hill was a copy of King
Solomon's Temple on Mount Moriah, that the lower ruins
were a copy of the palace which the Queen of Sheba in-
habited during her stay at Jerusalem, and that the trees in the
middle of it were undoubtedly alraug trees." f Karl Mauch
* " Ruined Cities of Mashonaland," p. 195.
+ Idem. pp. 196-7.
X Idem, p. 209.
THE CHARTERED COMPANY 207
suffered for his enthusiasm. His picturesque statements
excited incredulity and the work of scientific exploration was
delayed for twenty years, when it was undertaken by Mr
Theodore Bent under the joint auspices of two * London
societies and the Chartered Company.
The original inhabitants of the Mashonaland plateau are
a tribe of industrial Bantu. The Mashonas are without
military organisation, live in open villages, and have made
some progress in the arts. Interesting evidence of the
character of these people is afforded by a description of a
visit to one of their villages which was lately read by Mr
Frank Surridge at a meeting of the Colonial Institute.!
Mr Surridge was chaplain to the pioneer force which
occupied the country in 1890 ; and his account, therefore,
is valuable, because he describes the people while they were
still untouched by European civilisation. He tells us that
the inhabitants of the village fled on the appearance of " a
white stranger with a huge camera and tripod," and that he
was left in possession of the chief's kraal. He continues,
" Moving about through the quaint little houses, we may see
signs of their industry. There stands the smith's forge, of
a very primitive type of their own designing, but sufficient
to produce some splendidly finished specimens in wrought
iron, such as assagais, reaping implements, and knives. At
another place may be seen the miniature arsenal, where the
native men had been occupied in the manufacture of their
own gunpowder. Another man may be bestowing some
time and labour in carving a charm in ivory or a pillow in
wood. Others may be occupied in cotton-spinning or
mat-making. And last, but not least, there might be seen
the native brewer labouring at his trade, and producing
what is generally known as Dtchuala, or beer very small in
character. Around the village there is some agricultural
* The Royal Geographical and the British Society for the advance-
ment of Science. Mr R. Swan was associated with Mr Bent,
t Reports, vol. xxii. p. 462 (July 1891).
3o8 SOUTH AFRICA
land ; the women are the labourers, and gather in their
harvests of corn, rice, tobacco, sweet potatoes, pumpkins,
and monkey nuts."
But the plateau is not exclusively occupied by the
Mashonas. The southern portion is in possession of a very
different people, the Matabele. The Matabele Zulus, it
will be remembered, retired northwards beyond the Limpopo,
after the defeat of Moselekatse by the Boers under Hendrik
Potgeiter. Shortly after that event, about the year 1840
according to Mr Selous, this warlike people, under
Umziligazi, the son of Moselekatse and father of Lobengula,
overran Mashonaland. Following the usual methods of
the military Bantu, they exterminated the inhabitants of
that portion of the country which they selected for oc-
cupation, and reduced the survivors to slavery or vassalage.
Since this conquest to the date of Lobengula's death the
Matabele king has maintained his supremacy over his
Mashona subjects by sending his impis among them once a
year for the purpose of indiscriminate murder and plunder.
It was an interference with this native custom that caused
the outbreak of hostilities between Lobengula and the
Company. (Note 28.)
Such, then, in brief outline, are the characteristic features
of Charterland.
The Mashonaland plateau, the immediate objective of
the Company, was known from the accounts of hunters and
explorers — and these accounts have since been verified —
to be temperate in climate, well-watered, and well-wooded.
It was a country where, to use Mr Selous' words written
originally in 1883, " European children would grow up with
rosy cheeks, and apples would not be flavourless." * There
was also presumptive evidence of the presence of gold in the
remains of ancient workings which had been discovered, and
in the practice of the natives who were known to obtain
alluvial gold by primitive methods from the Mazoe and its
* " Travel and Adventure," p. 79 and note.
THE CHARTERED COMPANY 209
tributary streams. To-day the gold resources of Mashona-
land are broadly stated to consist of " 2000 miles of
mineralised quartz," * and in addition to gold the existence
of ample deposits of coal and iron in juxtaposition has been
ascertained.
The occupation of this country might legitimately have
been undertaken by the Imperial Government ; for is not
England both the paramount power in South Africa, and
the greatest colonising nation in the world ? As a matter
of fact, this obvious and salutary task was left to be ac-
complished by private enterprise, we might almost say by
a single individual.
The acquisition of the interior of South-Central Africa
by Mr Cecil Rhodes and his associates is probably the
most successful application of the resources of civilisation
to a commercial enterprise yet placed on record.
A mere narrative of the successive steps by which the
occupation has been accomplished is sufficiently impressive.
By a proclamation of the High Commissioner of March
23rd, 1885, the 22nd parallel of south latitude was fixed
as the northern boundary of the Bechuanaland Protectorate,
and the British sphere of influence was shortly afterwards
extended northwards to the Zambesi. By thus fixing the
boundary of the Protectorate it was supposed that the
northward expansion of the South African Republic would
be checked, for a band of red was placed between the
Transvaal border and the interior of Africa. Notwith-
standing this precautionary measure, it became known in
1887 that the Boers contemplated the establishment of
a northern colony. Fortunately the Boers were watched
by vigilant eyes in the Cape Colony, and this forward
movement was anticipated by the conclusion of a treaty
of " peace and amity " between Great Britain and
Lobengula. Under the terms of this treaty, which was
* Company's Report, — p. ic.
4
21b SOUTH AFRICA
executed early in 1888, the Matabele king bound himself
not to enter into correspondence with any foreign power
without the knowledge and consent of the High Com-
missioner. On October 30th in the same year Mr
Rochfort Maguire and two others obtained a concession
of the right to work minerals in Lobengula's territory.
The immediate object of the Association which after-
wards became the British South Africa Company was
to give effect to this concession. The owners of the
Rudd concession transferred their rights to the founders
of the Company, and the founders of the Company under-
took in return to find the necessary capital, and to share
the nett receipts arising from the operations of the future
Company in South Africa with the concessionaires.*
On April 30th, 1889, proposals for the formation of a
Company to develop the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and
the territories lying to the north, were submitted by the
Association to the Imperial Government. The objects
of the proposed Company were shortly stated to be
these : —
1. To extend northwards the railway and telegraph
systems in the direction of the Zambesi.
2. To encourage emigration and colonisation.
3. To promote trade and commerce.
4. To develop and work mineral and other concessions
under the management of one powerful organisation,
thereby obviating conflicts and complications between the
various interests that had been acquired within those
regions, and securing to the native chiefs and their
subjects the rights reserved to them under the several
concessions.
At the same time the Association declared its intention
to petition for a Royal Charter, on the ground that the
* "Report," 1889-92, p. 2. This original arrangement was after-
wards converted (in November 1893) "''^o a half share of the increased
share capital of ;^2,ooo,ooo.
THE CHARTERED COMPANY 211
undertaking "could not be considered as likely to be
remunerative for some time," and that " the sanction and
moral support " of the Imperial Government was " necessary
to the due fulfilment" of the objects proposed.*
In complying with this request the Imperial Govern-
ment were influenced by two considerations. In the first
place, the operations of a Company incorporated by Royal
Charter would be more easily controlled than those of
a Company formed under the provisions of the Joint Stock
Companies Acts ; and in the second, Lord Knutsford, the
Secretary for the Colonies, was of opinion that such a
Company could, generally, " relieve Her Majesty's Govern-
ment from diplomatic difficulties and heavy expenditure,"
and, in particular, render valuable assistance to Her
Majesty's Government in South Africa by undertaking
the administration of the Bechuanaland Protectorate.!
The British South Africa Company obtained its Charter
on the 29th of October 1889. Arrangements were at
once made by Mr Rhodes, the Managing Director in
South Africa, for the extension of the railway northwards
from Kimberley ; and at the same time a police force
sufficient for the occupation of the country and the pro-
tection of the settlers was enrolled and organised.
The actual occupation was effected by the famous
Pioneer Expedition which left the camp on the Macloutsie
River on June 28th, 1890, and reached Fort Salisbury,
a distance of 400 miles, on the 12th of September. The
Pioneeer Force consisted of 200 Europeans and 150
native labourers : it was organised by Mr Frank Johnson,
and conducted by Mr F. C. Selous : the Pioneers were
accompanied by the newly-organised police. The police
force started 500 strong, but their numbers were
gradually lessened as the forts and stations were
successively established and garrisoned. The command
* Idem. p. 2.
t Letter from Colonial Office to Foreign Office, Idem. p. 3.
2 12 SOUTH AFRICA
of the entire expedition was entrusted to Colonel
Pennefather. In the course of this march a " service-
able road, 400 miles long," the Selous Road, was
constructed by the Pioneers, who cut paths through
the forests, rendered the rivers fordable, and spanned the
streams with corduroy bridges ; and forts with intermediate
stations were erected and garrisoned at Tuli, Victoria,
Charter, and Salisbury. The cost of the expedition,
exclusive of grants of land and mineral rights to the
Pioneers^ was ;^89,2 85, los. od. Moreover, the occupa-
tion of Mashonaland was effected "without the loss of
a single life, and without the necessity of firing a shot." *
On the 29th of September the force was disbanded at
Salisbury, the Pioneers dispersed to search for gold, and
the administration of the country thus occupied by some
1000 Europeans was assumed by Mr A. R. Colquhoun.
Shortly afterwards the Company's Police found them-
selves in collision with the Portuguese authorities in
Manica at Massi Kessi. The Portuguese, although
they had been in possession of certain points on
the south-eastern littoral of Africa since the occupation
of Sofala in 1505, had never established an effective
control over the natives in the interior. It was not
anticipated, therefore, that any obstacle would be presented
by this shadowy territorial claim to the establishment of
free communication between Fort Salisbury and the coast.
Ultimately, further conflict was avoided by the arrange-
ment of a modus vivendi on the nth of November; and
the terms of this arrangement were embodied in the
Anglo-Portuguese Convention of June nth, 1891. By
this treaty the territorial claims of Portugal were recognised,
but the nominal possession by this power of the littoral
belt was not allowed to interfere with the development of
the interior country. In return for the definite recognition
of her territorial rights by Great Britain, Portugal under-
* Idem, p, 7.
THE CHARTERED COMPANY 213
took to construct or allow the construction of a railway
from Beira to the interior, and to limit the duties levied
upon goods in transit across the Portuguese territories
between the East Coast and the British Sphere to a
maximum of 3 per cent. At the same time the free
navigation of the Zambesi was secured.
The unexpected opposition of the Portuguese had an
adverse influence upon the Mashonaland Settlement. By
preventing the immediate establishment of communication
between Salisbury and Beira, the Portuguese compelled
the Company to draw their supplies by the long over-
land route, and the prices of stores and provisions were
abnormally raised by this enormous cost of carriage.
The 1500 settlers, in Mr Rhodes' words,* "went to
work to find their reefs, but they were removed 1700
miles from the coast, and their food cost them j[,io a ton."
At the same time the difficulties of the situation were
increased by the unusually heavy rains which fell during
the season of 1 890-1. This latter circumstance had the
further effect of causing the retirement of the Company's
first administrator, Mr Colquhoun ; and the appointment
of Dr Leander Jameson as his successor.
When Dr Jameson assumed the control of the Settle-
ment, towards the end of 1891, the affairs of the Company
had reached something like a crisis.
The settlers were discontented, for fever was prevalent
and food at famine prices. The police force, originally
500 strong, had been raised to 650, in order that
the Company might successfully co-operate with the
Bechuanaland Border Police in preventing a threatened
"trek" from the Transvaal. The accounts of the
Company showed an annual expenditure of ;,r2 5o,ooo,
while the revenue available for administrative purposes was
practically nothing.
Dr Jameson, however, proved equal to the occasion.
* Company's Report oi Annual Meeting, 29th November 1892.
214 SOUTH AFRICA
** If you will give me ,-^3000 a month, I can pull
through," he said, when Mr Rhodes "talked matters
over" with him.* In the following year the police were
disbanded with the exception of 40 men, and a volunteer
force of 500 men at ;£4 a head was substituted in their
place. At the same time, as every able-bodied man in
the country was liable to burgher duty, arrangements
were made for equipping a total force of 1500 men if
necessity arose.
This necessity came sooner than was foreseen. As the
Company has been in effect charged with directly pro-
voking hostilities with a view to the destruction of the
Matabele system, a statement made by Mr Rhodes at the
second annual meeting of the shareholders, held on the
29th November 1892, is significant. Mr Rhodes then
said : f " Our differences with the Portuguese are over,
and we are on most friendly terms with Lobengula. The
latter receives a globular sum of j^ioo a month in
sovereigns, and he looks forward with great satisfaction
to the day when he will receive them. I have not the
least fear of any trouble in the future from Lobengula."
Although Dr Jameson and the officers of the Company
have been " clearly exonerated " by an exhaustive and
impartial enquiry made by the Imperial Government into
the " origin and conduct " of the Matabele War, this
statement, made little more than six months before the
actual outbreak of the war, retains its significance. It is
incredible that Mr Rhodes should have made this definite,
and, as it proved to be, optimistic statement, if a struggle
with Lobengula had been at that time even remotely
contemplated. On the contrary it appears that the re-
cognition and maintenance of Lobengula's authority was
part of the Company's programme.
The necessity of abandoning this attitude was forced
upon the Company by the action of the Matabele king.
* Jaew. t /c/em. p. 7,
THE CHARTERED COMPANY 215
It is an old story in South Africa. The savage cannot
dissociate peace from weakness. When Lobengula saw
the white men quietly going about their business, and
scrupulously avoiding any aggressive action against himself
and his people, he drew his own conclusions, and, under
the influence of these conclusions, he became himself
emboldened and aggressive. And then, in Mr Rhodes'
words,* " We either had to have that war, or leave the
country. I do not blame the Matabele," he added, " their
system was a military system ; they once a year raided
the surrounding people, and such a system was impossible
for our development."
In the course of this annual raid upon the Mashonas
a Matabele impi, "about 300 strong," and itself "a
detachment of a much larger body," entered Victoria on
the 1 8th July 1893.
" As the lives of the settlers were in danger, Dr Jameson
gave the Matabele ample notice to leave the neighbourhood
of the township, and on their refusing to do so and con-
tinuing their raids, he ordered the mounted police, about
thirty-eight in number (under the late Captain Lendy,
R.A.), to eject them. The Matabele fired on the police,
but they were driven out and pursued for some miles,
about thirty of them being killed. It was hoped that
this would be a sufficient lesson for them, but such was
not the case. Messages were immediately sent to
Lobengula, and every effort was made to obtain a peaceful
solution of the difficulty ; but Lobengula despatched a
defiant message in answer to one also sent by Sir Henry
Loch, Her Majesty's High Commissioner, refusing to treat
until the Company had delivered up to him the Mashona
men, women and children who had taken refuge in
Victoria." That is the official account of the origin of
the Matabele War contained in the Company's Report, f
* Company's Report, - p. 6.
t B. p. 17.
2i6 SOUTH AFRICA
The actual events of the war are too recent to require
narration in detail. When once it became evident that
a contest was inevitable, both Mr Rhodes at Capetown
and Dr Jameson at Fort Salisbury acted with prescience
and promptitude. Dr Jameson organised and equipped
the scattered settlers, who volunteered almost to a man,
and concentrated his available forces, both European and
native, at Fort Salisbury, Victoria, and Tuli. Mr Rhodes
placed ;;^5 0,000 to the credit of the Company, and in-
formed the High Commissioner that the Company would
need no assistance from the Imperial Government. At
the same time he sent up horses from the Transvaal, and
forwarded supplies to Palachwe, Macloutsie, and Fort
Salisbury.
The columns despatched from Salisbury and Victoria
for the capture of Buluwayo numbered 1227 men, and
of these 672 were Europeans.* They effected a junction
at Indaima's Mount, a point sixty miles equi-distant from
Forts Charter and Victoria, on the i6th of October, that
is to say, about a fortnight after Dr Jameson had been
authorised by the High Commissioner " to take all steps
he considered necessary to provide for the safety of the
lives and property of the settlers under his administra-
tion." The force was commanded by Major P. W. Forbes,
but both the administrator, Dr Jameson, and the Com-
pany's senior military officer, Major Sir John Willoughby,
accompanied the columns. From this point they advanced
along the plateau, where the country was comparatively
open, in a south-westerly direction upon Buluwayo. On
the 24th and 25th of October they were attacked by 5000
Matabele on the Shangani River, and on the ist of
November, in the neighbourhood of the Imbembezi, they
were again confronted by a force of 7000 Matabele which
included Lobengula's finest regiments. In both cases the
Company's force fought in laager, and thus protected,
♦ P. i8.
THE CHARTERED COMPANY 217
they repulsed the Matabele rush with heavy losses. On
the 4th of November Buluwayo was occupied. A month
later, Major Allan Wilson and thirty-five others, forming
part of a patrol 300 strong despatched to secure the
fugitive Lobengula, were surrounded and cut off on the
Shangani River, The story of their death, told sub-
sequently by the Matabele, has added another, but not
a new page to England's book of memories. By the 22 nd
of December the columns had been disbanded, and the
country was then thrown open to the volunteers for
prospecting and settlement.
In these operations the Mashonaland force lost 80
killed, of whom 49 were Europeans ; and 45 wounded,
of whom 1 2 were Europeans. The Southern force,
which had advanced simultaneously upon Buluwayo from
Tati, and which consisted of the Bechuanaland Border
Police, under Major Gould-Adams, together with the
Tuli column, lost, out of a total of 445 Europeans, 4
men killed and 10 wounded.*
The Matabele War expenditure appears in the Company's
accounts as p^i 1 3,488, 2s. iid.
At such cost and by such swift methods was the
conquest of Matabeleland accomplished.
But the Matabele War was an episode — unfortunately
not the only episode — in the progress of operations which
are essentially commercial and pacific in their intention.
The first section of the Bechuanaland Railway, or
Main Trunk Line of Africa, extending from Kimberley
to Vryburg, was opened on the 3rd of December 1890:
and the second section, from Vryburg to Mafeking, on
the 3rd of October 1894. And, since the beginning of
the present year (1896), nearly 180 miles of railway has
been laid northward from Mafeking. Palapye, a distance
of 300 miles in the direction of Buluwayo, will be reached
early in 1897, and Buluwayo by the end of the year.
* Pp. 24- 26.
2i8 SOUTH AFRICA
The East Coast, or Beira Railway, was carried from
Fontesvilla, a place 45 miles up the Pungwe River, to
the 75th mile-stone on the 19th of October 1893, and
then forward to the present terminus, Chemoio, a distance
of 118 miles inland. The section (about 55 miles) to
the Portuguese boundary will be completed by the end
of 1896 ; and the line will then be carried forward without
delay to Umtali and Salisbury.
The telegraph has advanced further and more rapidly
than the railway. It reached Fort Victoria in December
1 89 1, and Fort SaUsbury, a distance of 819 miles from
Mafeking, on the 17th of February 1892.
From this point it is proposed to carry the line forward
to Wady Haifa, and thus establish direct telegraphic com-
munication between Cairo and Capetown. At the present
it has reached Zomba in the Nyasaland Protectorate.
The break between Tete on the Portuguese frontier and
Salisbury will, if the conditions of labour are favourable,
be completed by the end of 1896. It will then advance
northwards to Fort Johnston, to Katonga, at the head of
Lake Nyasa, and to Abercorn ; and, unless unforeseen
difficulties occur, will reach Lake Tanganyika in Septem-
ber 1897.
This project is a favourite scheme with Mr Rhodes.
" If this telegraph is made," he said,* " there will be an
end to the slave trade, and it will also give us the keys
to the Continent. I repeat that I have no doubt about
the success of the project, which is a much easier under-
taking than amalgamating the Kimberley diamond mines,
or governing the Cape Colony."
Meanwhile the internal development of Mashonaland
has not been neglected. Roads have been constructed,
telegraphic and postal communication established, public
buildings erected in the towns, and the machinery of
administration has been completed. Buluwayo, the
* Second Annual Meeting, p 12 (November 19th, 1892).
THE CHARTERED COMPANY 219
youngest of the four or five towns with any considerable
European population, has far outgrown the rest. In less
than a year, that is to say, in September 1894, this place
was converted from the home of a savage tribe into a
town of 2000 inhabitants, housed to a large extent in
brick buildings, and reading one or other of the two
weekly newspapers already issued in type. While outside
the town as many more were engaged in prospecting on
the various gold fields.* With the growth of Buluwayo
the success of the Chartered Company's enterprise, as
a colonising experiment, may be said to be assured.
At a recent meeting of the Company,! Mr Rhodes
spoke definitely on this point. " I have been through
the country, and from an agricultural point of view I
know it is a place where white people are going to settle.
... I would as soon live there as in any part of South
Africa."
Looking at Mashonaland from this point of view, as
a new field for British emigration, an important considera-
tion arises. What effect will the commercial basis upon
which this country has been developed have upon the
settlers ? In other words, how are the shareholders of the
Company to get a return for their capital without unduly
burdening the inhabitants ?
The method in which this is to be done constitutes
what Mr Rhodes calls his "patent." In the same speech
he says : —
" I have once said before that out of licences and the
usual sources of revenue for a government you cannot
expect to pay dividends. The people would get annoyed
if you did; they do not like to see licences spent in
dividends — those are assets which are to pay for any
public works and for good government. We must, there-
• AM
* — p. 23.
+ P. 9 (January i8th, 1895).
2 20 SOUTH AFRICA
fore, look to our minerals to give us a return on our
capital, which, you must remember, is ;^2, 000,000." *
In the earlier speech to which he here refers, he
explains how the idea occurred to him, and how the
method will work. In that speech he said : — +
" My experience of the past is that, just as qua Govern-
ment so qua a Company — we cannot expect to do more than
balance revenue and expenditure from land, customs, and
assisting in other matters connected with developing the
general natural resources of the country. Therefore,
when we created the Charter, we had to consider by
what means a return could be given to the shareholders,
and I remember thinking out the various ways of making
a return to those who had risked their capital in the
undertaking. It has always struck me that, if it were
possible for the Government of a country to share in the
discovery of the minerals, a very fair return would accrue.
For instance, I have been a miner at Kimberley, on the
discovery of the diamond fields, and I was allowed to
mark out one claim. It has always struck me afterwards,
when I had become engaged in the politics of the country,
that if I had been allowed to mark out five claims, no
one would have been hurt if I had pegged out two and
a half for myself and two and a half for the Government.
The same thought had occurred to me when I went up
to Witwatersrand and saw that marvellous gold field,
where the terms were that they could each mark out one
claim. It had occurred to me that, supposing the law
had been that each of them could mark out ten claims —
five for themselves and five for the Government — it would
not hurt the prospectors, and it would have meant wealth
to the Government of the country. The only objection
to the idea was that it was a perfectly new one. At any
rate, we thought we would try it in Mashonaland, and it
• Since increased.
t Second Annual Meeting, p. 9 (November 1892).
THE CHARTERED COMPANY 221
was the law of the country that 50 per cent, of the vendor
scrip went to the Charter."
The success, therefore, of the Chartered Company as
a commercial undertaking depends upon the discovery
of payable gold deposits.
The general prospects of gold mining in Matabeleland,
Mashonaland, and Manicaland have been ascertained
through the report of Mr J. H. Hammond, the consulting
Engineer to the Gold Fields of South Africa Company.
From this report,* dated November 5th, 1894, it appears
that (i) the ore deposits are "true fissure-veins"; (2)
that veins of this class are universally noted for their
permanency," but " permanency " does not " necessarily
imply the occurrence of pay-shoots of commercial value " ;
(3) on the other hand, " it would be an anomaly in the
history of gold-mining if, upon the hundreds of miles of
mineralised veins, valuable ore shoots should not be
developed as the result of future work."
Up to the time of the native insurrection, gold mining
was in progress round Buluwayo in Matabeleland ; and in
Mashonaland in the districts of Salisbury, Mazoe, Umtali,
Lo Magunda, Umfuli, and Victoria. As regards results,
the Gold-fields of Mashonaland Company showed an out-
put (for three months only) in 1894 of 385 ozs., and up to
July 1895, of 1943 ozs. The Mashonaland Central Com-
pany also obtained a crushing of 560 ozs. Mining as well
as farming has been brought to a standstill by the insurrec-
tion, but after the railways have been completed, and both
food and mining plant can be brought up at reasonable
cost, industrial enterprize will be renewed.
This, then, is the method by which Mr Rhodes intends,
in his own phrase, to " combine the commercial with the
imaginative," to pay dividends, and extend the empire.
Let me close this account of the operations of the
Chartered Company by Mr F. C. Selous's description
* B. p. 72.
2 22 SOUTH AFRICA
of the state of affairs which he found at Buluwayo, on his
return to Rhodesia in the autumn of 1895.
" In short, at this time — the autumn of 1895 — everything
was apparently conleiir de rose in Matabeleland. Properties,
whether farm lands, building sites in town, or mining claims,
went up to very high values, whilst almost every one believed
that within a year Buluwayo would contain a population of
5000 souls, and that the town itself would receive a plenti-
ful supply of water from the reservoirs already in course
of construction, and be lighted by electric light. In fact,
all was mirth and joy and hope in the future ; for what
was to hinder the ever increasing prosperity of the country?
Much good work had already been done on many of the
reefs, and on the whole the promise was distinctly good.
Then, again, after a probation of eighteen months, the
country had been pronounced favourably upon by Dutch
and Colonial farmers, especially for cattle-ranching, whilst
many predicted that much of the high veld would carry
sheep." *
This prospect of security and assured prosperity was
rudely destroyed by two events which have now to be
related — the Revolt of the Uitlanders in the Transvaal,
and its sequel, the insurrection of the natives in Rhodesia.
* Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia, F. C, Selous, p. 5.
CHAPTER XIII.
The Revolt of the Uitlanders.
WHEN the Boer Government was restored in 1881,
there were two classes of inhabitants in the Trans-
vaal, whose interests the Imperial Government desired to
protect — the natives and the British residents. The
general restrictions imposed upon the internal freedom
of the Boers with this object in view are now embodied
in the Convention of London, which, in 1884, replaced
the Pretoria Convention of 1881. With the natives we
are not now concerned. British residents who had entered
the country during the period of annexation (1877-1881),
were exempted from " all compulsory military service what-
soever." It was also sought to secure equal civil and
political rights for any Englishmen who might subsequently
settle in the country. By Article XIV, (replacing Article
XVI, of the original Convention) : —
"All persons, other than natives, conforming themselves
to the laws of the South African Republic (a) will have
full liberty, with their families, to enter, travel, or reside in
any part of the South African Republic ; (d) they will be
entitled to hire or possess houses, shops, and premises ;
(c) they may carry on their commerce either in person or
by any agents whom they may think fat to employ ; (d) they
will not be subject in respect of their persons or property,
or in respect of their commerce or industry, to any taxes,
whether general or local, other than those which are or
may be imposed upon citizens of the said Republic."
It must be concluded that this article is not legally
2 24 SOUTH AFRICA
sufficient for the purpose in question ; but a reference to
the proceedings of the Commissioners by whom the form
of the Boer Government was fixed will conclusively show
what was their intention. In these proceedings the follow-
ing colloquy is duly recorded in the blue-book as taking
place between Mr Kruger and the Commissioners.
" Sir H. Robinson : Before annexation, had British
subjects complete freedom of trade throughout? Were
they on the same footing as citizens of the Transvaal?
Mr Kruger : They were on the same footing as the
burghers. There was not the slightest difference in accor-
dance with the Sand River Convention.
Sir Hercules Robinson : I presume you will not object
to that continuing ?
Mr Kruger : No ; there will be equal protection for
anybody.
Sir Evelyn Wood : And equal privileges ?
Mr Kruger : We make no difference as far as burgher
rights are concerned. There may, perhaps, be some slight
difference in the case of a young person who has just come
into the country."
Moreover, when Swaziland became part of the territory
of the South African Republic, under the Swazi Conven-
tion of 1894, the Imperial Government, warned by the
inadequacy of the Pretoria Convention, introduced definite
stipulations, which secure for the Uitlander in that territory
the very rights which are denied to his brother Uitlander
in the Transvaal.
It was also sought to secure equal privileges for British
trade by Article XIII., which prevents the imposition of
discriminating duties against British imports, or the main-
tenance or imposition of any prohibition "on the importa-
tion into the South African Republic of any article coming
from any part of Her Majesty's dominions, which shall not
equally extend to the like article coming from any other
place or country." And when the Vaal Drifts were closed
THE REVOLT OF THE UITLANDERS 225
in October 1895, the action of the Republican Government
was successfully contested by the Imperial Government on
the ground that it was a breach of the Convention.
It is due, therefore, to a mere technical error that the
Government of the South African Republic have been able
to pursue the course of repressive legislation which has
reduced the Uitlanders to their present position. The
details of their grievances are fully set out in the manifesto
of the National Union, issued on the 26th December 1895,
and in Mr Chamberlain's despatch of the 4th February
1896.* The general attitude of the Transvaal Executive
is expressed in the phrase which President Kruger is
reported to have used : " When the floods rise we build
the banks higher."
The successive alterations in the franchise laws which
have been conceived in this spirit are as follows.
In 1 88 1 the British immigrant could obtain the franchise
after two years' residence. In 1882 the period of residence
was raised to five years. In 1890 a Second Chamber was
created, to which the Uitlander had access under certain
restrictions. But this second chamber was invested with
none of the powers of an effective legislative body. It can
merely recommend legislation on certain matters to the
Raad. At the same time as this specious concession was
made the period of residence was again raised. Ten years
was now required as a qualification for the right to elect
members of the Raad, and fifteen as a qualification for the
membership of that body. In 1893 a law was passed by
the Raad, enacting that a Uitlander could only obtain the
franchise after ten years' qualification for the membership
of the Second Chamber. As he could not secure this
qualification until he was thirty years of age, it followed
that no Uitlander under the age of forty could obtain the
franchise. Moreover, although he must have submitted to
the liability for compulsory drill, and compulsory service in
* C— 7933-
p
2 26 SOUTH AFRICA
the field if required, he would still be prevented from exer-
cising the right of voting for the offices of President and
Commandant-General.
From this exclusion of the Uitlanders from any share in
the Government of the Republic has arisen the present
strange and anomalous situation. The British inhabitants,
forming an actual majority (note 30) of the people of the
Transvaal lie at the mercy of an ignorant and notoriously
hostile rural community represented by a bare majority of the
twenty-four members of the Raad. The children of this popu-
lation, which pays, according to Mr Chamberlain, eighteen-
or nineteen-twentieths of the total revenue of the state, are
growing up in ignorance because the Government refuse to
recognise any other medium of instruction than the Dutch
language. Public notices are communicated to this British
population in Dutch ; the legal records of commercial
transactions, to be valid, must be written in Dutch ; in the
courts of law Englishmen must plead in Dutch, and give
evidence in Dutch through an interpreter. A great indus-
try— the gold industry — with which the industrial prosperity
of the Transvaal is bound up, and on which the commer-
cial development of South Africa depends, is fettered by a
fiscal system which offends against economics as flagrantly
as it does against justice, and by administrative methods
which are both ineffective and immoral.
But President Kruger and the Raad have had certain
direct dealings with the National Union and the people of
Johannesburg which must be recorded.
In 1894 a petition for reforms, signed by 13,000 men,
was addressed to the Raad. It was received with " con-
temptuous laughter and jeers." In 1895 ^ similar petition,
signed by 38,000 men, was rejected. On this occasion
one of the members expressed the opinion that if the Uit-
landers wanted the franchise they would have to fight for it*
* Mr Otto. He said : — " Come on if you want to fight. I say,
come on and have it out — the sooner the better. I am prepared to
THE REVOLT OF THE UITLANDERS 227
Moreover, it must be added that in 1892 President Kruger
gave a written pledge to introduce a measure which should
extend the franchise to " trustworthy persons." The fulfil-
ment of this pledge consisted in the restrictive legislation
of 1893, under which, in Mr Chamberlain's words, the
Uitlander " can now never hope to attain these rights in
full, and their partial enjoyment is only conceded after a
term of probation so prolonged as to amount, for most
men, to a practical denial of the claim. If he omits to
obtain any kind of naturalization for himself, his children,
though born on the soil, remain aliens like himself." Well
may Mr Chamberlain add that " The feelings of intense
irritation which have been aroused" by the original griev-
ances " have not been lessened by the manner in which
remonstrances have been met." *
In order to complete this survey of the events previous
to the Revolt an account of Lord Loch's action, in June
1894, must be included.
At this date Lord Loch visited Pretoria to discuss
matters in connection with the Swazi Convention and
the exemption of British subjects from the operation of the
Commando laws. It appears from his statement in the
House of Lords t that on this occasion he was requested
by the residents of the Randt to visit Johannesburg. On
the 26th June, however, President Kruger addressed a
letter to him, in which he begged him not to take this
step. In the reply, dated June 27 th, in which Lord Loch
acceded to this request, he pointed out that the 40,000
British subjects in the Transvaal appeared to him to have
" some very real and substantial grievances." At the same
time, he received a deputation of Randt residents, and
from these twelve gentlemen he learnt that a resort to
fight you, and I think every burgher of the South African Republic is
with me. I say to-day that the people who signed the memorials are
rebels."
* Despatch of Feb. 4th. t May ist, 1896.
2 28 SOUTH AFRICA
force was in contemplation. In reply to this information,
Lord Loch pointed out the folly and danger of such a
course. Subsequently, upon his return to Cape Town,
and in view of the continued agitation at Johannesburg,
he felt it to be his duty as Her Majesty's High Commis-
sioner to take certain steps, which included the " assembly
at certain points of British Imperial Bechuanaland Police."
He continued : —
" My intention was that, if disturbances had arisen in
Johannesburg — disturbances resulting from the adminis-
tration extended by the Republic towards the Uitlanders
in that city — it would have been my duty, I considered, to
have informed President Kruger that he would be held respon-
sible for the safety of the lives and property of British subjects.
I should have further considered it to be my duty to have
informed President Kruger that if he had failed in provid-
ing the necessary protection of the lives and property of
British subjects in Johannesburg, I should have felt myself
at liberty to have taken such steps as I might have felt
expedient to have given that protection which he would
have failed to give." *
It will be observed that there is a strange similarity
between the situation in June 1894 and that which arose
eighteen months later, in December 1895. If it be the
case, as I venture to contend, that any estimate of the
degree of guilt, legal and moral, which attaches respectively
to Dr Jameson, to Mr Rhodes, and to the Transvaal
Reformers, must largely depend upon the attitude of the
High Commissioner and of the Imperial Government,
up to the crisis, and at the time when that crisis arose,
the fact that the situation was no new one — that, in fact,
the drama of 1895-6 had been fully rehearsed in 1894 — is
one of singular significance. Incredible as it seems, the
fact is there. Her Majesty's High Commissioner at Cape-
town and Her Majesty's Ministers in Downing Street, were
• Times report.
THE REVOLT OF THE UITLANDERS 229
familiar with the condition of the Transvaal ; they knew
that the Uitlanders had long been suffering from " very
real and substantial grievances ; " were being goaded to
desperation by the insolent trifling or contemptuous in-
difference of President Kruger and the Volksraad ; knew
that Johannesburg was arming in its amateur fashion ;
knew, in a word, that all the materials for a conflagration
had been collected ; that all that was needed was to apply
the match and kindle the flame — and yet they sat still and
did nothing, until they were galvanized into action by the
news that Dr Jameson had crossed the Transvaal border.
In the face of Lord Loch's action in 1894, it is hard
to regard the explanation of this supineness which Mr
Chamberlain gives as wholly sufficient ; or to acquit either
Lord Rosmead or the Imperial Government of all respon-
sibility for the disasters which arose out of Dr Jameson's
gallant but misjudged interference. According to this
explanation the Imperial Government refrained from inter-
ference because, in the first place, " the Uitlanders and their
organs had always deprecated the introduction into the
dispute of what is called in South Africa the ' Imperial
factor ; ' " and, in the second, because the " * rumours ' of
violent measures ' were continually falsified by the event.' " *
It is, of course, necessary to remember that there was
nothing in the actual assembling of the police forces to
arouse the suspicion of the Colonial Office, or of the High
Commissioner. The arrangements which had lately been
made for the transfer of the Bechuanaland Protectorate
(with the exception of Khama's Country) to the Chartered
Company, and the consequent inspection and retention of a
section of the Bechuanaland Border Police by Dr Jameson,
with other circumstances, sufficiently accounted for what
took place at Pitsani Pitlogo and Mafeking up to the
period when the expedition set out
It is not easy to relate the actual circumstances of the
* Despatch, February 4th.
2 30 SOUTH AFRICA
revolt within the compass required lor these pages. But
the attempt must be made.
On the 2oth November 1895, Mr Lionel Phillips, the
Chairman of the Chamber of Mines at Johannesburg,
delivered a speech which was marked by a note of menace.
" Nothing," he said, " was further from his heart than a
desire to see an upheaval, which would be disastrous from
every point of view, and which would probably end in the
most horrible of all possible endings — in bloodshed." At
this time an understanding had been entered into between
the reform leaders and Dr Jameson, that the latter should,
under certain circumstances, throw a force of the Chartered
Company's police into Johannesburg. On the 26th
December, the Manifesto of the Transvaal National Union
was issued at Johannesburg ; it was signed by Mr Charles
Leonard, the Chairman. It was published in the Johannes-
burg Star in full, and a summary appeared in the London
Times of December 28th. It commenced by announcing
that the meeting which was to have taken place on the
27 th December was postponed until the 6th January
next. It ended with the following summary of the objects
of the Union : —
" We want :
1. The establishment of this Republic as a true
Republic.
2. A Grondwet or constitution which shall be framed
by competent persons selected by representatives of the
whole people and framed on lines laid down by them, a
constitution which shall be safeguarded against hasty
alteration.
3. An equitable franchise law and fair representation.
4. Equality of the Dutch and English language.
5. Responsibility to the Legislature of the Heads of
the great departments.
6. Removal of religious disabilities.
THE REVOLT OF THE UITLANDERS 231
7. Independence of the Courts of Justice with adequate
and secured remuneration of the Judges.
8. Liberal and comprehensive education.
9. An efficient Civil Service, with adequate provision
for pay and pension.
10. Free Trade in South African products.
This is what we want.
There now remains the question which is to be put be-
fore you at the Meeting of the 6th of January, viz.: How
shall we get it ? To this question I shall expect from you
an answer — in plain terms according to your deliberate
judgment." *
On Sunday, the 29th December, two bodies of mounted
police marched respectively from Pitsani Pitlogo, and
Mafeking, and effected a junction at Malmani, a point
within the Transvaal border, early on the following morning.
This force, which consisted of between 500 and 600
mounted troopers, was commanded by Dr Jameson, the
British South Africa Company's administrator, and Major
Sir John Willoughby, the company's senior military officer.
Before leaving camp on Sunday afternoon the men were
informed that Dr Jameson had received a letter from the
principal residents in Johannesburg inviting him to pro-
ceed to that place for the purpose of protecting the lives and
property of the British residents. On Wednesday, the ist
January, 1896, after disregarding two messages from the
High Commissioner, Dr Jameson reached Krugersdorp, a
point some ten miles west of Johannesburg, and came into
conflict with the Boers. On the following day (January
2nd), after an engagement of some hours' duration, in
which twenty-five men were killed on the side of the
Chartered Company, the column surrendered at Doorn-
kop, and were subsequently taken to Pretoria. There
was a dispute as to the terms under which the surrender
was effected. The Boers maintained that the surrender
* As it appeared in the Johannesburg Star.
232 SOUTH AFRICA
was unconditional, alleging that Mr Cronj6, the officer who
conducted the negociations, had no authority to offer any
other terms than those of an unconditional surrender. Sir
John Willoughby was able, however, to produce the written
communications which passed between him and this officer ;
and on this, and other evidence which was submitted for
their consideration, the War Office decided " that whatever
position Mr Cronje may hold in the Transvaal Army, he
decidedly, on the occasion in question, acted as an officer
in authority, and guaranteed the lives of Dr Jameson and
all his men if they at once laid down their arms ; " and fur-
ther, that " no subsequent discussion amongst the Trans-
vaal officers could retract the terms of this surrender." *
Meanwhile " the Uitlander Tortoise had put out its head."
On the 30th December the Transvaal police and officials
were withdrawn from Johannesburg, and on the following
day a Provincial Government was proclaimed. But no
force advanced from Johannesburg to meet the Chartered
Company's column, although Dr Jameson was so near that
it was actually reported in London that he had entered the
town. And it was to this circumstance that the failure of
the expedition as a military enterprise was due. After the
surrender of the column Johannesburg lay at the mercy of
a burgher force variously estimated at from 8000 to 12,000
men.
Here two questious arise : First, what was the cause of
the hitch ? and, second, what was the position of Mr Cecil
Rhodes ?
Neither of these questions can be fully answered until
the South Africa Committee has held its enquiry ; but
sufficient facts and evidence have already been disclosed to
enable us to form an approximately correct conception of
what really took place.
It appears that it was arranged that on a given day — the
28th December — the Reform Committee should declare a
• C— 8063.
THE REVOLT OF THE UFrLANDERS 233
Provisional Government, Dr Jameson should enter the
Transvaal, and Mr Rhodes should start from Capetown for
Johannesburg. Up to Monday, the 23rd, the three parties
were in harmony, for on that day Dr Rutherfoord Harris,
the Capetown secretary of the Chartered Company, tele-
graphed* to Dr Jameson —
" Company (z>., insurrection) will be floated next Saturday
at 12 o'clock at night. They are very anxious you must not
start before 9 o'clock. Secure telegraph office silence."
But on the 26th a difference of opinion had arisen. On
that day Dr Jameson hears from Col. Rhodes at Johannes-
burg that " it is absolutely necessary to postpone flotation,"
and receives the same telegram through Dr Harris at Cape-
town, with the addition of the words, "You must not move
until you hear from us again. Too awful. Very sorry."
And a further telegram from his brother (Mr S. A. Jameson)
at Johannesburg tells him why the "flotation " is postponed.
" It is absolutely necessary to postpone flotation through un-
foreseen circumstances here altogether unexpected, and until we
have C. J. Rhodes's absolute pledge the authority of Imperial
Government will not be insisted on. Charles Leonard left last
night to interview C. J. Rhodes. We will endeavour to meet
your wishes as regards December, but you must not move until
you have received instructions."
So far as Mr Rhodes knew the insurrection was now in-
definitely postponed. He distrusted, too, either the energy
or the good faith of the Reform leaders. On the following
day, Friday, the 27 th, Dr Harris telegraphs to Dr Jameson
— " You must wait patiently and I will do my very utmost,
but am beginning to see our shareholders in Matabeleland
concession were very different to those in Secheland
matter." And again, in the course of further communica-
tions— communications in which Dr Jameson's objection
* These telegrams were in cypher ; but it will be remembered that
the key fell into the hands of the Transvaal Government — being found
in the baggage captured at Krugersdorp.
234 SOUTH AFRICA
that the Chartered Company was already compromised by
the concentration of the police, was answered by the state-
ment that the taking over of the B. B. Police was in itself
a sufficient explanation of the circumstances in question —
Dr Harris telegraphs on the 28th :
" You are quite right with regard to cause of delay of flotation,
but Charles Leonard and Hamilton of S/ar inform us that move-
ments not popular in Johannesburg. When you have seen Cap-
tain Maurice Heany let us know by wire what he says. We
cannot have fiasco."
And later in the same day came a more decided warning
" Lionel Phillips telegraphs A. Beit the following : —
'It is absolutely necessary to delay flotation. If foreign
subscribers (Chartered Company) insist on floating without
delay, anticipate complete failure.' "
And on this same day, Saturday the 28th, as we know
from the Blue-book,* Mr Rhodes had an interview with
Sir Graham Bower, the Imperial Secretary, at Capetown,
in the course of which he gave an accurate account of the
situation. The Johannesburg insurrection, he said, " had
fizzled out as a damp squib. The capitalists financing the
movement had made the hoisting of the British flag a sine
qua non. This the National Union rejected, and issued a
manifesto declaring for a republic. The division had led
to the complete collapse of the movement, and it was
thought that the leaders of the National Union would now
probably make the best terms they could with President
Kruger."
Mr Rhodes's position, then, was this. He was pre-
pared to assist in the insurrection, provided that the Trans-
vaal was thereby converted into a British possession. He
did actually assist the conspirators to the extent of placing
the resources of the Chartered Company and of the De
Beers Consolidated Mines at their disposal. But he stopped
• C— 8063.
THE REVOLT OF THE UITLANDERS 235
short at the point of allowing Ur Jameson to cross the
border for the purpose of supporting an insurrectionary
movement which aimed solely at converting a Boer Re-
public into a Uitlander Republic. But in spite of the risk
of failure threatened by the breach between the Reform
leaders and Mr Rhodes, and in spite of the latter's orders
not to move under existing circumstances, Dr Jameson
resolved to enter the Transvaal on his own responsibility,
and, if possible, to win the game off his own bat. More
than that, carried away by the confidence of the high
spirited young officers who served under him, he entertained
the conception of marching directly on Pretoria if the
Johannesburg auxiliaries proved efificient, and met him as
had been arranged. Under this impulse he resolved to
himself initiate the insurrection, and force the hands of the
Reform Committee, by an appeal to the spirit of the general
mass of British residents. Accordingly he telegraphed on
Dec. 2Sth, to Mr Wolff, the Chartered Company's repre-
sentative at Johannesburg, " Meet me as arranged before
you leave by Tuesday night, which will enable us to decide
which is best destination." And on the following day, the
29th, he telegraphed to his brother, Mr. S, A. Jameson;
" Dr Wolff will understand the distant cutting {i.e., that he
had cut the wires which communicated with Mr Rhodes
and Capetown). British Bechuanaland police have already
gone forward. Guarantee {i.e., of expenses of the force)
given."
Mr Rhodes received the information that Dr Jameson
had crossed the border on Sunday the 29th. He com-
municated the intelligence to Sir Graham Bower on the
same day. In a telegram despatched to Mr Chamberlain
on the 31st, Lord Rosmead says,* that he has "seen C. J.
Rhodes, who assured him Jameson acted without his
authority ... he at once endeavoured to stop him, but
found wires cut." According to Mr Schreiner's evidence,
* C-7933-
236 SOUTH AFRICA
given before the Jameson Select Committee at the Cape,*
Mr Rhodes made use of the following words in speaking
to him of the event : —
" Yes, yes, it is true. Old Jameson has upset my apple-
cart. He has ridden in. Go and write your resignation
[Mr S. was Attorney-General in the Government]. I did
not tell you yesterday, because I thought I had stopped
him. Poor old Jameson ! Twenty years friends, and now
he goes in and ruins me. I cannot hinder him, and I
cannot destroy him."
As regards the legality of Mr Rhodes's action, I may
remark, without endeavouring to anticipate the result of the
enquiries of the South Africa Committee,t that the con-
clusion of the Cape Committee on this question does not
appear to discriminate on a point of the highest importance.
This committee found that :
"... Mr Rhodes did not direct or approve of Dr
Jameson's entering the territory of the South African Re-
public at the precise time when he did so, but the com-
mittee cannot find that that fact relieves Mr Rhodes from re-
sponsibility for the unfortunate occurrence which took place.
Even if Dr Jameson be primarily responsible for the last
fatal step, Mr Rhodes cannot escape the responsibility of a
movement which had been arranged, with his concurrence,
to take place at the precise time that it did, if circumstances
had been favourable at Johannesburg.^''
Surely this proviso is in matters of this kind all-im-
portant. The offence which is punishable under the
Foreign Enlistment Act is that of " fitting out any . . .
expedition to proceed against the dominions of any
Friendly State." If a Provisional Government, claiming
authority over the Republic, had been established and
maintained at Johannesburg, and this Government had
eventually been recognised as the successor of the Repub-
* Reported to ihe Cape Assembly on July 17th, 1896.
t OrdcrcJ July 30th, 1896.
THE REVOLT OF THE UITLANDERS 237
lican Government by foreign powers, how could Dr Jame-
son's expedition have been shown to have committed the
offence of proceeding against a friendly State ? Moreover,
in the case of this insurrection the words which Lord
Palmerston used in defending his Government against the
charge of allowing Englishmen to enlist in the revolutionary
forces commanded by Garibaldi, have a special significance :
" It is the fault and fortune of governments when their
subjects have revolted that they appeal to all friendly
powers for assistance to remove the men who are the
authors and instigators of the revolution. These govern-
ments forget that they are the real and original authors and
instigators of these revolutionary movements ; and if their
prayers were granted, the first, most effectual, and only
necessary step would be their own removal ^
To return to the narrative of events. As I have
already mentioned a summary of the manifesto of the
National Union was published in the Times of Decem-
ber 28th, 1895 ; and before that day the Cologtie
Gazette was reported to have accused Mr Rhodes
of "inspiring and fomenting the discontent of the
Uitlanders for the purpose of incorporating the South
African Republic with Rhodesia." Possibly in consequence
of these reports, Mr Chamberlain telegraphed* at 5.30 p.m.
on Sunday, the 29th, to Lord Rosmead, that it had been
suggested that " some one in the service of the Company
was advancing from the Bechuanaland Protectorate with
police." At the same time he desired him to remind Mr
Rhodes that such action was contrary to certain articles in
the Charter. Early in the afternoon of the next day the
reassuring statement made by Mr Rhodes t that the '* move-
ment at Johannesburg had collapsed," reached him. In
reply to this, Mr Chamberlain telegraphed to Lord Rosmead,
" Are you sure Jameson has not moved in consequence of
collapse." He had scarcely sent off this pertinent enquiry
* C— 7933. t See p. 234.
238 SOUTH AFRICA
before he received a definite confirmation of his fears, with
the information that Lord Rosmead had forthwith tele-
graphed to Mr Newton, the Resident Commissioner at
Mafeking, to send a special mounted messenger in pursuit.*
This was the first of a series of disquieting telegrams,
including an intimation forwarded from the British Resident,
Sir Jacobus de Wet, that " President S. A. R. has asked
for the intervention of Germany and France." Late that
Monday night Mr Chamberlain desired Lord Rosmead to
" leave no stone unturned to prevent mischief.'' And on
the following afternoon he telegraphed directly to President
Kruger, " Can I co-operate with you further . . , bring
about . . . peaceful arrangement which is essential . . .
and which would be promoted by the concessions which I
am assured you are ready to make ? " It is interesting to
note that Mr Chamberlain at once addressed himself to the
question of the Uitlanders' grievances. If there had been
supineness at the Colonial Office before the crisis, activity
and alertness was the order of the day now. Mr Cham-
berlain personally devoted himself to the direction of affairs
with unremitting energy. Every step which could reassure
the Republican Government, and allay the excitement of
race animosity in South Africa was taken. The Chartered
Company was ordered " to telegraph at once to their
representative in Matabeleland to stop the intended move-
ment" of Rhodesia Horse southwards. Official notices
were published through the South African press that the
Imperial Government, the High Commissioner, and Mr
Cecil Rhodes, all alike, repudiated Dr Jameson's action.
And, at the suggestion of Mr Hofmeyr, Lord Rosmead and
the Governor of Natal issued proclamations forbidding the
British colonists to take part in the hostilities. The British
subjects in the South African Republic were by the Queen's
* Sir Graham Bower had been unable to f^ive Lord Rosmead the
information (which Mr Rliodes had jjivcn him late on Sunday night)
until Monday morning.
THE REVOLT OF THE UITLANDERS 239
command enjoined to abstain from " aiding or countenanc-
ing Dr Jameson or his force." On the evening of Thurs-
day, the 2nd of January, Lord Rosmead, under directions
from Mr Chamberlain, proceeded from Capetown to the
scene of action, to act as a " peace-maker " between the
insurgents and the Republican Government. He reached
Pretoria on the evening of Saturday the 4th, and remained
there until the 1 4th. As the result of his mediation, he was
able to inform Mr Chamberlain on the 7 th of January that
the Reform Committee had sent a message to the effect that
they had resolved " to comply with the demands of the
South African Republic to lay down their arms ; the people
of Johannesburg placing themselves and their interest un-
reservedly in my hands in the fullest confidence that I
will see justice done to them." * And on the same day
he reported President Kruger's determination to hand over
Dr Jameson and his men to the Imperial authorities on the
* With this statement of the understanding upon which the Reform
Committee surrendered Johannesburg, the following notices which were
printed in large type in the Standard and Diggers^ News (a copy of
which is before me) must be read : " We understand on the authority
of Sir Sidney Shippard that, if a single shot is fired against the
burghers, Dr Jameson's life will be seriously endangered." "The
High Commissioner earnestly requests the people of Johannesburg to
lay down their arms." And, although it is quite true that from a
military point of view Johannesburg lay at the mercy of the Boer levies
it must be remembered that to storm or starve Johannesburg would
inevitably have led to a contest between the Dutch and British colonists
in South Africa, in which the Imperial forces must have intervened.
It is possible that the burghers who, as it was, were restrained with
difficulty by President Kruger from resorting to extreme measures in
dealing with the Jameson force, would not have recoiled before this
prospect. It is possible, too, that in addition to the immediate assistance
which the Free State had already offered, the Republican Government
would have relied to some extent upon the assistance of Germany and
France. But the temper of England being what it was — the temper
in which the German Emperor's congratulatory message to President
Kruger was answered by the immediate equipment of a Special Service
squadron — the gravity of the situation, which the reduction of Johannes-
burg by force of arms would have created, must have been realised by
the leaders of the Dutch nationality both within and without the
Transvaal,
240 SOUTH AFRICA
borders of Natal. On the loth, he was able to add that
President Kruger had issued his "forgive and forget"
proclamation, and had promised to submit a law for the
establishment of a municipality in Johannesburg to the
Raad during the next session.
Nevertheless it is plain from the language of Mr
Chamberlain's despatches that he was not at this time
satisfied with the course which events had taken. On the
4th of January he instructed Lord Rosmead to remind the
Republican Government " that the danger from which they
had just escaped was real, and one which, if the causes
which led up to it were not removed, might recur, although
in a different form." And on the 15th of the same month
he exhorted Lord Rosmead to " use plain language." The
people of Johannesburg, he said, had surrendered " in the
belief that reasonable concessions would be arranged by
your intervention ; and until these are granted, or are
definitely promised to you by the President, the root cause
of the recent troubles will remain." To this Lord Rosmead
replied somewhat curtly : " The question of concession to
Uitlanders has never been discussed between us." I quote
these expressions of Mr Chamberlain because the opinion
which they embody provides us with a test by means of
which we can estimate both the extent to which Mr
Chamberlain has modified his original policy of securing an
immediate redress of the " admitted grievances " of the Uit-
landers, and the value of the measures (note 2 9) which have
been passed by the Raad up to the present in fulfilment of the
promises made in this proclamation of the i oth of January.
It is not my intention to pursue the narrative beyond
this point. The negociations which subsequently took
place between the Colonial Office and the Republican
Executive relative to Mr Chamberlain's invitation extended
to President Kruger in his despatch of Feb. 4th, 1896,
are to be found in the Blue-books. The account of Mr
Cecil Rhodes's resignation of the premiership of the Cape
THE REVOLT OF THE UITLANDERS 241
Colony and subsequently of his directorship of the Chartered
Cornpany will be found, together with the changes already
introduced in the administration of Rhodesia, in the follow-
ing chapter.
There are, however, two events which arose so directly
out of the Johannesburg revolt that a brief reference to
them is necessary. I refer, of course, to the trial of the sixty-
three members of the Reform Committee at Pretoria, and
to that of Dr Jameson and his officers in London.
Sentence was pronounced on the Johannesburg Reformers
by Judge Gregorowski (of the Free State) on April 28th,
1896. The four leaders, Messrs Lionel Phillips, George
Farrar, J. H. Hammond, and Colonel Rhodes, pleaded
guilty to the charge of having negociated with Dr Jameson ;
and the fifty-nine remaining members of the Committee to
having assisted in furnishing the people of Johannesburg
with arms. The leaders were sentenced to death, and
the others to various terms of imprisonment and to fines.
The death sentences were afterwards commuted by the
Executive, under Article IH. of the Grondivet, to fifteen
years imprisonment, and finally to fines of ;^25,ooo, and
an undertaking (on pain of banishment) not to take part for
the future in any political movement in the Republic.
Ultimately all the reformers, — except one who died in gaol
at Pretoria, and two who refused to submit to any penalty
on the ground that the Imperial Government were pledged
to hold them safe under the terms of the Johannesburg
surrender — were released on payment of fines varying in
amount with the degree of culpability.
Dr Jameson, C.B., Major Sir John Willoughby, Captain
the Hon. Robert White, Colonel Grey, Major the Hon.
H. F. White, and Major the Hon. C. J. Coventry, were
convicted under the Foreign Enlistment Act, 1870, on July
29th, 1896, after trial at bar before a special jury, and a
court composed of the Chief Justice (Lord Russell of Kill-
owen), Baron Pollock, and Mr Justice Hawkins.
Q
242 SOUTH AFRICA
The case of Regina v. Jameson and others has an im-
portance altogether independent of the forensic interest
which it has created. The story of the events which cul-
minated in those seven dreary days in the Chief Justice's
Court will live in the pages of history. With the blame
which henceforth attaches to the names of Dr Leander
Jameson, Sir John Willoughby, and the rest, there will be
mingled a feeling of compassionate regard such as has
rarely, if ever, been felt towards any convicted persons.
And this feeling is natural : it is explained by the con-
sideration that the crime of which these men have been
found guilty is a conventional one. Conventional, because
there is no Englishman who believes that either Dr Jame-
son, or any one of his associates, is one whit less worthy
of regard, one whit less capable of honourably performing
any of the duties or responsibilities of human life, now^
than he was before he had been found guilty of fitting out
an expedition against a friendly State — to wit, the South
African Republic.
I do not say that the sentence is not in accordance with
the law. It is this very fact, the irreproachable legality
of the entire proceedings in this trial, which shows that
the crime is itself conventional. The prisoners were
convicted by what is probably the most perfect judicial
procedure in the world. A strong Court — no single judge,
but the Chief Justice of England supported on his right
by the soundest lawyer on the Bench, and on his left by
the most experienced of our criminal judges — the most
able counsel of the English Bar, a jury alike intelligent
and honest, afford the elements out of which must come a
true verdict and a just sentence. The defence essayed to
show that the violation of the Transvaal territory was by
an improvised act, an act done under a sudden and generous
impulse. The evidence which was brought forward by the
Crown, letter after letter, telegram after telegram, showed
that carefully concealed measures had been taken, and a
THE REVOLT OF THE UITLANDERS 243
deliberate and preconcerted plan eventually carried into
effect. Even the approximate date of the expedition, the
26th of December, had been fixed more than a month
before the two columns simultaneously marched out from
Mafeking and Pitsani Pitlogo.
With such evidence before them, it was impossible for
the jury to find a verdict other than "guilty"; nor could
the Court — this strong and learned Court — have pro-
nounced any lighter sentence. It would be unreasonable
to expect that the verdict of history could ever reverse
the verdict of this consummate tribunal.
And yet, I repeat, there is no Englishman worthy of
the name who thinks the worse of Dr Jameson and his
associates. He is a criminal in the eye of the law, but he
is no criminal in the judgment of the nation. We have
this astonishing fact before us. The verdict is universally
admitted to be true, the sentence to be just, and yet these
facts do not prevent the nation from feeling the fullest
sympathy with these men against whom the verdict has
been recorded. This feeling of sympathy is something
quite different from the natural feeling of commiseration
which is felt by all persons of ordinary benevolence for
one who is visited even by a well-merited punishment.
The feeling of sympathy for Dr Jameson is so genuine and
so powerful that it amounts to nothing more nor less than
a direct refusal to believe that he or his associates are in
any ordinary sense criminals, although they have been
convicted of crime. And the reason is not far to seek.
The nation cannot dissociate itself from the crime of these
men. The culpable inactivity of the Imperial Govern-
ment in South Africa led directly to the state of affairs at
Johannesburg which made this expedition possible, and
which, according to the rider appended by the Jury to its
verdict, presented great provocation to the accused. The
grievances and the consequent discontent of the Uitlanders
in the Transvaal were known to the British agent at Pretoria ;
2 44 SOUTH AFRICA
they were known to Her Majesty's High Commissioner at
Capetown; they were known to Her Majesty's Secretary
of State in Downing Street. Two years ago, Lord Loch
proposed to use the very same body of troops for this very
same purpose — the purpose of protecting British lives and
British property in the event of an insurrection of the
Uitlanders in the Transvaal. The Chief Justice, in the
course of his exhaustive summing-up, very pertinently
asked, " Why was not that letter of invitation addressed to
the High Commissioner, or the Secretary of State?" But
the Chief Justice seemed to be entirely ignorant of the
significant answer which his enquiry invited. Neither of
these officials were addressed because the British people in
the Transvaal had learnt by bitter experience the utter
futility and uselessness of making any appeal directly or
indirectly to the Imperial Government. The condition of
the British subjects in the Transvaal before Dr Jameson's
expedition was the condition which is expressed in those
burning words of Junius, " What has an Englishman now
to hope for? He must turn from King, Lords, and
Commons, and look up to God and himself if he means to
be free."
For the incredible supineness of the Imperial Govern-
ment, which left the fires of revolt to smoulder at Johannes-
burg for two years, the British nation is itself responsible ;
for the Government is its agent and servant Out of this
supineness arose Dr Jameson's crime ; and the British
people do well to refuse to dissociate themselves from the
men whom they have themselves made criminals
CHAPTER XIV.
The Insurrection in Rhodesia.
IT will be remembered that in a previous chapter,*
mention was made of the partial amalgamation of the
Dutch and English parties in the Cape Colony under the
leadership of Mr Rhodes. The alliance between him and
Mr Hofmeyr, the leader of the Africander party, was un-
doubtedly one of the most hopeful signs in the political
situation as it appeared before the end of the year 1895 ;
for it strengthened the prospect of a general union of the
Republics and Colonies to be achieved through the unique
position of Mr Rhodes as managing director of the Char-
tered Company and Prime Minister of the Cape Colony.
But when Dr Jameson had "ridden in" — to use the ex-
pression with which Mr Rhodes is credited in his interview
with Mr Hofmeyr — " the crockery was broken " ; and on
the 6th of January 1896 Mr Rhodes resigned the premier-
ship, and Sir J. Gordon Sprigg was called upon to form a
new ministry.
After this event Mr Rhodes returned to England, saw
Mr Chamberlain, and forthwith returned, by way of the
Suez Canal and Beira, to Rhodesia. Here, in the country
which bore his name, he announced his intention of residing
for the future, and of henceforth devoting his energies to
the development of its resources.
While the negociations for the visit of President Kriiger
were in course of progress, the Imperial Government at
once endeavoured to satisfy the Transvaal Executive that
they were prepared to offer " a complete guarantee " against
* X. p. 179.
2 46 SOUTH AFRICA
any attack upon the independence of the South African
RepubHc " either from any part of Her Majesty's dominions
or from the territory of any foreign power." For this
purpose certain changes were without delay introduced into
the administration of Rhodesia. The entire forces, poUce,
volunteers, and native levies, were placed under the com-
mand of an Imperial Officer, who was styled " Commandant-
General of the local forces in the Bechuanaland Protectorate
and in the territories south of the Zambesi under the direct
administration of the British South Africa Company, and
Deputy-Commissioner of the last mentioned territories " ;
and Col. Sir Richard Martin was appointed to this office.
Changes in the personnel of the Company also followed
as a result of the Jameson incursion. The duties of the
Company's Administrator, now purely civil, were under-
taken by Lord Grey. Dr Rutherfoord Harris was removed
from the Capetown Secretaryship ; and towards the end of
June, the resignations of Mr Rhodes and Mr Beit from the
Board of Directors were accepted, and at the same time
Mr Rochfort Macguire retired as being Mr Rhodes'
representative on the Board. Mr Rhodes's resignation,
and the subsequent cancellation of his power of attorney
to represent the Directors in South Africa, followed in
awkward proximity to a strongly worded despatch, signed
by Dr Leyds, the State Secretary of the Transvaal Executive,
in which the Imperial Government were called upon to
prosecute Mr Rhodes, Mr Beit, and Dr Rutherfoord Harris.
But before Sir Richard Martin had received his final
instructions, an event had happened which compelled
the Imperial Government to make further arrangements.
This event — the insurrection of the natives in Rhodesia —
was the disastrous sequel of Dr Jameson's expedition. It
was necessary now to supplement the local by Imperial
troops. And it was thought advisable to place a general
officer in active service. Sir Frederick Carrington, over the
combined forces, with supreme authority until the power of
THE INSURRECTION IN RHODESIA 247
the rebels should be declared to have been broken by the
High Commissioner.
Two main causes are assigned for the irritation and dis-
content of the natives — the cattle question and the abuses
committed by the native police.
The former of these causes requires some explanation.
After the war with Lobengula the proprietorship of the
royal cattle passed to the Company, But only part were
taken possession of by the Company's officials ; the re-
mainder, 90,000 head of cattle, were branded with the
Company's mark and left to the natives to pasture and
tend as before. Then the Government called up the
cattle as they required from time to time. As the result
of this course of procedure the natives were irritated by
what seemed to them to be a continual process of confis-
cation. At last, in view of their discontent and on the
recommendation of Mr Herbert Taylor, chief Native Com-
missioner, the Company decided to take two-fifths of the
then remaining balance of 70,000 head, and leave the
remaining three-fifths as the absolute property of the
natives. Under this arrangement the indunas were sum-
moned to Buluwayo, and after they had expressed their
satisfaction at the proposal, the cattle were distributed.*
Certain causes, not under the control of the Company's
government, also contributed to render the natives uneasy
at the presence of the white man. In 1890 there was a
plague of locusts ; in 1894 and 1895 there was a partial
drought ; and immediately before the outbreak the pre-
valence of the rinderpest or cattle plague (note 31)
necessitated the wholesale destruction of cattle in the
infected districts with a view of arresting the spread of the
disease.
But there is good ground for believing that this irritation
would not have culminated in an insurrection had it not
* For particulars of cattle trouble see C — 8130. (Report of Mata-
beleland Land Commission of 1894.)
248 SOUTH AFRICA
been for the disastrous circumstance that the Jameson
expedition had practically denuded the country of the white
police.
The narrative which Mr F. C. Selous tells of his own
experience of the outbreak in its earliest stage points
significantly to this conclusion. The murder of a native
policeman on the night of Tuesday, the 20th of March,
was, he says, the first overt act of rebellion on the part of
the Matabele against the government of the British South
Africa Company. On Tuesday, the 24th of March, on
reaching his homestead, Essexvale, about mid-day, he
found that some natives from the neighbouring village of
Intuntini had been over to borrow some axes. The
request caused no surprise to Mrs Selous, as they were
accustomed to render such services to their Matabele
neighbours. He continues : —
" About sundown some of these same men brought the
usual evening's milk, and my wife and I chatted with them
for some time. We spoke about the recent murders on
the Umzingwani, and the conduct of Umzobo and Umfon-
disi, and my wife asked me to say that she thought they
had acted very foolishly, as the white men would punish
them. At this they laughed, and one of them said signifi-
cantly, ' How can the white men punish them ? Where are
the white police ? There are none left in the country.' " *
What follows is equally significant, as tending to refute
the allegation that the white settlers in general ill-treated
the natives. Without denying that there were isolated acts
of lawlessness — such acts as are found in every community,
old or young — he holds that the charge is otherwise base-
less. And this general conclusion (elsewhere stated) is
supported by the fact that he finds himself unable to
attribute the escape of his wife and himself to the circum-
stance that they had lived on the best of terms with the
natives round the homestead. " Why no attempt was made
* " Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia," p. 23.
THE INSURRECTION IN RHODESIA 249
to murder us on that Tuesday," he says, "will always
remain a mystery to me." He thinks that the real reason
was, that the natives supposed he had gone from home to
fetch assistance. That their disposition was by no means
benevolent was shown by the fact that they went off that
night with the cattle which had been placed under their
charge, and probably assisted in the murder of Messrs
Foster, Eagleson, and Anderson.
But it remains for the investigations of the South Africa
Committee to sift the truth of these allegations. And at
this point it will be convenient to set out in full the order
of the 30th July, 1896, under which this Committee was
appointed by the House of Commons.
" That a Select Committee be appointed to inquire into
the origin and circumstances of the incursion into the
South African Republic by an armed force, and into the
administration of the British South Africa Company, and
to report thereon ; and, further, to report what alterations
are desirable in the government of the territories under the
control of the Company."
Meanwhile a brief account of the actual circumstances
of the rebellion may be of interest.
As already stated, March 20th is the date which marks
the commencement of the insurrection. From that time
onwards the settlers in the scattered homesteads or mining
camps were exposed to the murderous attacks of the
Matabele. On Tuesday, the 24th, news of the murder
of Mr Bentley, the native Commissioner, and of the whites
in the Insiza and Filabusi districts, reached Mr Duncan, the
Company's administrator at Buluwayo. In order to realise
the extreme gravity of the danger by which the Rhodesian
settlers were thus suddenly confronted, and the consequent
merit of the efforts made, both by themselves and by the
Cape and Imperial authorities on their behalf, it is neces-
sary to know the position of the government at Buluwayo,
and the meagre character of the resources at its command.
250 SOUTH AFRICA
At this time affairs were in a transition state. The
Chartered Company were represented by the acting-ad-
ministrator, Judge Vincent, at SaHsbury, and by Mr
Duncan, at Buluwayo. Lord Grey, the new adminis-
trator, was on his way to take up his duties ; Sir Richard
Martin had not left England. The Imperial Government
was represented at Buluwayo by Captain Nicholson, under
whose control the military forces of the Company had been
placed after the Jameson incursion.
Mr Duncan and Captain Nicholson had at their disposal
a few mounted police under Captain Southey, 580 rifles,
about 100 horses, and fortunately a good supply of ammuni-
tion. It was obvious that under these circumstances the
settlers must defend themselves. The promptitude with
which they undertook this duty is shown by the fact, that
within a few hours of the receipt of the news of the Insiza
murders, three parties of mounted men set off to relieve and
bring in the whites in the outlying districts. One example
will suffice as evidence of the work achieved by these patrols.
On Thursday night, Mr Maurice Gifford relieved Cumming's
store, and thus rescued thirty-six men and one woman, who
were in laager. The relief force themselves lost one man
killed, and three wounded.
On this same Thursday, the 26th, Buluwayo went into
laager; and on April ist, the Buluwayo Field Force was
constituted, and in this force practically all the able-bodied
males enrolled themselves. On April the 5th, a count was
taken of the population of Buluwayo as they left the laager,
in the morning. It appeared that there were 1547 persons,
of whom 652 were women and children, and 915 men.
On the same day a parade of the Buluwayo Field Force
was held. There were 500 men on parade ; and this force,
together with the 270 men who were outside the town,
engaged in bringing in the unprotected settlers, — making a
total of less than 800 men, — represented the whole available
force with which the Europeans could confront the rebel
THE INSURRECTION IN RHODESIA 251
Matebele. Of this force 400 men were required to garrison
Buluwayo, 130 men were despatched to keep open the
Mangwe road — the Une of communication with the south
— and the remainder, less than 300 men, aided, however,
by 150 Cape "boys," under Mr Colenbrander, were free
for offensive operations.
One of the most alarming features of the situation was
the defection of the armed and trained Matabele native
police. Of these about one half joined the rebels in the
course of the insurrection ; and those who did not revolt
could not be trusted to remain loyal. On March the 28th,
80 native police were for this reason disarmed at Buluwayo.
Meanwhile the news of the rebellion, and of the desperate
position of the handful of Europeans, severed by 600 miles
of road from the nearest railway-terminus, had been tele-
graphed to the High Commissioner at Capetown, and to
the Colonial Office in London.
Lord Rosmead (Sir Hercules Robinson) at once placed
the Imperial stores at Mafeking at the disposal of the
Chartered Company, and a supply of 500 rifles and ammuni-
tion, forwarded by coach under an armed escort from this
source, reached Buluwayo on April the ist. On the 2nd
of April, Colonel Plumer, of the York and Lancaster
Regiment, with a staff of officers from the garrison at
Capetown, was despatched to Mafeking with instructions
to raise a force of 500 mounted men — eventually 720 were
equipped — to relieve Buluwayo. This force was recruited
at Kimberley and Johannesburg, and it included a number
of Dr Jameson's troopers, who had been handed over by
President Kriiger to the Imperial Government, and had
now returned from England to South Africa. Colonel
Plumer acted with great energy. On April the 12 th, the
first detachment of 50 men left Mafeking; on May the
3rd, the entire force had been moved up to Macloutsie ;
and on the 15th, Colonel Plumer and Sir Richard Martin
together reached Buluwayo.
252 SOUTH AFRICA
At the same time preparations were being made at
Salisbury to equip a relief column from that place. It was
with this column that Mr Rhodes fought his way through
the insurgents to the centre of the rebelUon, eventually
reaching Buluwayo on the 30th of May.
But the events of the first three weeks, indicating as they
did that the whole Matabele people had risen in revolt,
caused the Imperial Government to supplement these
irregular and volunteer forces by drafts from the Imperial
troops at Capetown and Maritzburg, and to place the com-
bined forces, local and Imperial, under the command of a
general officer, Sir Frederick Carrington. In the second
week in April, Lord Grey, who was now in the Cape
Colony, accepted on behalf of the Chartered Company an
ofiFer of the Imperial Government to send 300 men of the
7th Hussars and 150 mounted infantry from Natal. In a
despatch to the High Commissioner, dated April 15th,
Mr Chamberlain announced the intention of the Imperial
Government to send reinforcements to South Africa, in
order to supply the place of the drafts which would be
forwarded to Matabeleland. On the 17 th of April, General
Carrington was recalled from Gibraltar; and on the 25th
he sailed for South Africa, and reached Buluwayo on
the 2nd of June. The forces placed at his disposal were
stated in his instructions (April 25 th) to consist of the
following : — 300 men of the 7th Hussars and as many
mounted infantry as could be spared from the Cape and
Natal regiments; 720 Colonial Volunteers raised by
Colonel Plumer, D.S.O. at Mafeking; and the various
pohce and volunteer forces, etc., serving in Matabeleland
and with Colonel Plumer. In addition to these. General
Carrington was authorized to use, if necessary, the police
and native forces in the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and
450 mounted infantry which were being sent out from
England to reinforce the Cape garrison.
To return to Buluwayo. The settlers enrolled them-
THE INSURRECTION IN RHODESIA 253
selves in the Buluwayo Field Force on April ist. Of this
force only a part could be employed outside of Buluwayo ;
but the few hundred men thus available succeeded in
achieving two purposes. In the first place, they brought in
the unprotected whites, and, in the second, they engaged
and drove the enemy from the immediate neighbourhood of
the town into the hills and forest recesses. In these
conflicts severe losses were inflicted upon the Matabele ;
but it is noticeable that the settlers had to fight in exposed
positions and did not rely upon the maxims but upon their
rifles. On Thursday, the i6th of April, the Matabele,
notwithstanding the checks which they had received, had
advanced \\'ithin a short distance of the town. The
situation at this time was suflSciently alarming. There were
1500 men, women, and children in Buluwayo who
retreated within the shelter of the laager every night. At
Gwelo there was a collection of some 400 persons,
including 29 women and children, in laager ; and there
was a lesser collection of refugees under Uke circumstances
at Belingwe. With these exceptions the whole country was
at the mercy of the Matabele rebels. Twelve miles west
of Buluwayo, at Redbank on the Khami river, there was a
large impi. Some thousands of Matabele under I^Iyamanda,
Lobengula's eldest son, were encamped on the banks of the
Umguza ; and there were two large impis on the EUbaini
hills. Altogether ten thousand natives were massed in a
semi-circle, stretching from the west to the north-east of the
town ; while large numbers were assembling to the south on
the Matoppo hills. The main road to the south was,
however, still open — a circumstance due, according to Mr
Selous, to the orders of the M'Limo,
That under these circumstances the settlers should have
been able to hold their own until the arrival of the reUef
force from Mafeking a month later, is an achievement which
has scarcely yet been appreciated at its real value.
On the 2Sth of April, Lord Grey reached Buluwayo and
254 SOUTH AFRICA
took up his duties as Administrator. In what spirit he
entered upon those duties is apparent from the brave
speech which he made on the 3rd of May. He then said
that at the beginning of the outbreak the Government had
only 379 rifles; but now "Buluwayo was as safe as
London."
On the 1 8th of April, the Salisbury relief column,
commanded by Colonel Beal, and accompanied by Mr
Rhodes and Sir Charles Metcalfe, set out ; and on the 3rd
of May it relieved Gwelo. Meanwhile, on the i ith of May,
when Colonel Plumer's force was getting within striking
distance, a column was despatched from Buluwayo to meet
and co-operate with the Salisbury column. The Buluwayo
column consisted of 42 officers and 613 men, under
Colonel Napier, who commanded the Buluwayo Field
Force during the rebellion. The two columns met on the
1 9th of May ; and a flying column, under Colonel Spreckly,
was shortly afterwards despatched to attack the natives on
the hills south of the Insiaa River. On the 27th the
Salisbury force, with Mr Rhodes, went southwards, and
finally reached Buluwayo on the 30th.
Meanwhile, on the 23rd of May, Colonel Plumer's force
attacked the enemy on the Umguza river, about twelve miles
from Buluwayo. In this engagement the Matabele were
driven from a strong position on the densely wooded hills
into the open valley of the river, and then pursued for a
distance of three miles.
After the arrival of General Carrington on June 2nd,
offensive operations on a larger scale were commenced.
By the end of the first week in that month, three con-
siderable patrols had been despatched against the insurgents.
Colonel Plumer proceeded with a force of 600 men west-
wards to the Khami river. Captain Macfarlane, who was
accompanied by Mr Rhodes and Sir Charles Metcalfe, took
300 mounted men and 100 Colonial "boys" northwards
to the Umguza. And a third force under Colonel Spreckly
THE INSURRECTION IN RHODESIA 255
was directed to co-operate with a column under Colonel
Beal in dislodging a body of natives who had occupied a
ford on the Umguza River, at a point six miles from
Buluwayo on the main road to Salisbury. The purpose
of these operations was to disperse the natives in the
neighbourhood of Buluwayo before attacking the gathering
masses of Matabele on the Motoppo hills.
But the insurrection was not confined to the Matabele.
On the 23rd of June the disturbing intelligence reached
Buluwayo that the peaceful Mashonas had also risen
against the white man. The number of whites murdered
in Mashonaland was comparatively small. Salisbury went
into laager, and relief parties were sent out to the home-
steads and mining camps. For some weeks the position
of the settlers was one of extreme discomfort and no little
peril ; but forces were rapidly desjxitched from Matabele-
land, and on the 23rd of July the Salisbury laager was
broken up. Shortly after this date, communication between
the various settlements was restored, and the insurgents
were scattered and broken. But the rising of the Mashonas
for a time delayed the execution of General Carrington's
measures for reducing the Matabele insurgents.
On the 4th of July the Buluwayo Field Force was dis-
banded. From this point the task of quelling the insur-
rection was taken out of the hands of the settlers. The
forces employed were under an Imperial Officer, General
Carrington, and consisted, as has been already stated, in
part of Imperial troops ; but the expense was defrayed
by the Chartered Company. The attitude of the Directors
will appear from the reply which Lord Grey made to the
offer of assistance from the Cape Government, and which
was read in the Cape Assembly on the 9th of July.
" It is the ambition of the Chartered Company and of
the people of this country to secure for England the
peaceful possession of Rhodesia at their own cost and
without calling upon the tax-payers of England or of
256 SOUTH AFRICA
the Cape Colony for the contribution of a single six-
pence."
Without attempting to narrate the operations of General
Carrington's force in detail, I shall refer to one or two
significant episodes which will enable the reader to form
some conception of the character of the fighting and of
the subsequent course of events.
The first of these episodes is the shooting of the M'Limo
by the American scout, Mr F. R. Burnham, in his cave
in the Matoppo country on June 23rd. The M'Limo was
the head of a priestly caste and the mouthpiece of the
native god ; and he, like Nongase,* had incited the natives
to rebel by promises of supernatural assistance — promises
which included the re-appearance of King Lobengula.
Mr Burnham, who was one of the survivors of Wilson's
party, has described his exploit in a report addressed to
Lord Grey. He says : —
"After several attempts that were failures, on the 23rd
of the month, we [i.e., Mr Burnham and Mr Armstrong,
a native commissioner] succeeded in catching the M'Limo
in the act of going through his incantations in the cave.
Our orders from General Carrington were to capture him if
possible, but on no account to allow him to escape us.
We were surrounded by Kaffirs in all directions. The
ground is very rough — huge granite kopjes, and boulders,
and dongas. We hid our horses as near the cave as it was
possible, and with great difficulty got ourselves into the
cave. M'Limo was going through a preparatory Indaba
this day, and the women and the old men were carrying
beer and utensils for the big Indaba to come off on the
following day. The Impi was supposed to be behind the
big granite hill. Just as M'Limo had finished his dances
in the smaller crevices and pathway leading to the main
entrance, and was starting into the main cavern, I shot him
with a Lee-MclXord rifle, killing him instantly. We left
• See Note 1 1.
THE INSURRECTION IN RHODESIA 257
his body at the entrance to the big cave. He is a man
sixty years old, with short-cropped hair. He was not
dressed with any snake skins, charms, or any of the
ordinary equipment of the witch doctor, neither had he
any article of white manufacture of any kind. He is not a
Ringkop [i.e. of Zulu blood] ; he is a Makalaka. His
features are rather aquiline for a negro ; very wide between
the eyes. His skin is more red than black. Immediately
after killing him we rushed down the side of the mountain.
Just at the foot there is a large kraal of over one hundred
huts, built on waving grass, no dagga being near it. The
huts are conical, with low doors, and were used as tem-
porary resting-places by the people coming to hold Indabas
with M'Limo. We fired these huts. The winds blowing
strongly against the kopje carried a huge sheet of flame and
volumes of smoke far over the top. The Kaffirs saw us,
and shouted and shrieked as we got to our horses. For
two hours we were hotly pursued, and were nearly ex-
hausted. Fortunately, the Kaffirs abandoned the chase
after we crossed the Shashani River. We arrived at
Mangwe at 6.30 p.m. I would say that all the trails
leading to this cave have been worn and beaten down
several inches in depth by constant travel this year. The
dust on all the trails is an inch or more in depth, showing
that this was the great Konza [Council] place for the whole
country. The Kaffir information by which Mr Armstrong
was enabled to discover the movements of the M'Limo was
obtained under strict bond of secrecy never to betray their
names to the white Government or anybody, as it would
mean absolute and certain death to all of them."
A second episode is the storming of Secombo's strong-
hold in the Matoppo Hills by Colonel Plumer's column on
the 5 th of August. In this engagement the fighting lasted
from eight o'clock in the morning to three in the afternoon.
The impis under Secombo and Umlugulu, with three
Others, were broken up. Secombo's stronghold was stormed
R
2 58 SOUTH AFRICA
by 200 infantry under Captain Beresford. This force was
then surrounded by the Matabele rebels, but kept them in
check until it was relieved by Major Kershaw. Ultimately
the rebels retreated to their caves with a loss of 300.
The column lost 5 men killed and 1 5 wounded. Among
the former was Major Kershaw, an officer of great promise
In this engagement the Cape " boys " fought with great
bravery ; but some of the " friendlies " {i.e. Matabele) went
over to the enemy.
Among the measures adopted by the High Commis-
sioner for the termination of the insurrection was the issue
of a proclamation, declaring that all natives who submitted
before the loth of August, with the exception of persons
convicted by the civil authorities of the murder of unpro-
tected whites, would be pardoned. The date of the expir-
ation of the amnesty was afterwards extended ; and the
third episode which I propose to bring before the reader —
the negociations conducted in person by Mr Rhodes with
the rebel chiefs — forms part of the effort thus made to
secure the peaceable surrender of the insurgent Matabele.
On the 23rd of August Mr Rhodes, with Dr Sauer and
Mr J. W. Colenbrander, rode without any escort five miles
into the heart of the Matabele position in the Matoppo
Hills, and held an indaba, or council, with Secombo and
other native chiefs. I take the following account of their
daring adventure from the columns of the Daily Telegraph
of August the 24th.
" About noon yesterday John Grootboom arrived in Mr
Rhodes's camp and asked to see those in command. He
then stated that six principal chiefs, two princes, Lobengula's
brothers, and thirty-four indunas and captains of the
Matabele impis were gathered in solemn council in the
hills, four miles away. The meeting was being held in
secret, as the chiefs were afraid to come into the open
owing to their distrust of the white troops. They wished,
however, to see Mr Colenbrander, whom they trusted as
THE INSURRECTION IN RHODESIA 259
a friend, and while they dared not ask such a great man
as Mr Rhodes to come to the council, he would, neverthe-
less, be welcome if he were willing to do so.
" Thereupon Mr Rhodes promptly decided to go. The
military staff at once wished to accompany him in order
to ensure his safety, but Grootboom strongly advised that
no such step should be taken, inasmuch as it would only
defeat its object and undoubtedly involve Mr Rhodes in
great personal danger.
" Accordingly, Mr Rhodes, Dr Sauer, Mr Colenbrander,
and the Press representative started for the spot indicated,
every man taking a revolver in each pocket, except Mr
Rhodes, who went unarmed, declining to carry any weapon.
John Grootboom and John Makings made up the party to
the number of six, and together they moved quietly into
the rugged portion of the Matoppos, the route lying over
land covered with kopjes, and honeycombed with caves.
" Externally every man endeavoured to display a calm
and even nonchalant air, but they all felt terribly anxious,
as they feared they might be running into a trap set by the
rebels to catch the great white chief, Rhodes, alive, and to
murder the others. This, moreover, they could easily have
accomplished.
" Just four miles from camp the six reached the foot of a
huge kopje, and one hundred yards further on was the
trysting-place.
" Mr Rhodes and his companions dismounted in dignified
silence, and took up their position by a large ant-heap and
waited. The suspense seemed interminable, and although
there was the stillness of death, the six knew well enough
that the place was surrounded by hundreds of armed
Matabele. Any wavering sign of fear would have been
fatal, but nothing of the kind was shown.
" The critical moment came when Grootboom advanced
to the kopje to say the party were awaiting the appearance
of the chiefs.
2 6o SOUTH AFRICA
"Suddenly there was a gleam of dead white from the
kopje, and all the chiefs filed out in a row, headed by one
carrying the white flag. They drew near to the party in
silence, and squatted round them in a semi-circle. The
Indaba lasted for five hours, all points at issue being
thoroughly discussed, and full explanations proffered by
the white men to allay the uneasiness which the chiefs evi-
dently felt at certain possible consequences of the surrender.
" Then the chiefs rose, and each threw a small stick at
the feet of Mr Rhodes, indicating their willingness to
surrender their guns, while another similar stick meant
they were ready to hand over their assegais.
" In return Mr Rhodes, whose coolness and dignity were
never at a loss, promised that the desired abolition of the
native police force should be taken into serious considera-
tion. The chiefs then solemnly declared that hostilities
should cease at once, and guaranteed the safety of the
roads and of the coaches."
This striking scene was the central incident in negocia-
tions of the value of which Lord Grey has thus written : —
" I cannot speak too highly of the immense services
rendered by Mr Rhodes in connection with his nego-
ciations in the Matoppos. With infinite patience and
characteristic tenacity of purpose, he has sat down at
the base of the Matoppos in a camp unprotected by a
single bayonet, which could have been perfectly well rushed
any night during the last six weeks by the rebels, with
absolute safety to themselves. It was entirely due to the
confidence which this action on his part inspired in the
minds of the rebels, who were very suspicious and alarmed
as to the treatment they would receive if they surrendered,
that they were at length induced to go out from the hills on
the flats. In this work he has been most ably assisted by Mr
Colenbrander, whose manner with the natives is perfect." *
* Letter of the i6th October, addressed to the Secretary of the
Chartered Company.
THE INSURRECTION IN RHODESIA 261
But this is by no means the sum of the services rendered
by Mr Rhodes during the year 1896 to the settlers in
Rhodesia and to the Chartered Company.
It is scarcely necessary to assert that both the com-
mercial development and the future peace of Rhodesia
depends upon the rapid extension of the railways more
than upon any other single measure. The distances to
which the railways have been already carried forward, both
from the Cape Colony and from the East Coast, have been
already stated in a previous chapter.* To this all-impor-
tant work of advancing the railways, Mr Rhodes applied
himself on his return to Rhodesia at the beginning of the
year (1896); and it is not too much to say that the
result achieved is due to his untiring energy and great
resources.
The rebellion in Rhodesia still smoulders, and the fate
of the Chartered Company hangs in the balance. In
view of these facts it may seem premature to discuss the
remedial proposals advanced by the Chartered Company.
But this account, however limited in its scope, would be
incomplete without some reference to the future.
The Directors have to allay the dissatisfaction both of
the natives and of the European settlers.
In respect of the former it appears from Lord Grey's
letter of the i8th of October, that it is the intention of the
Buluwayo Government to introduce a system of native
control practically identical with that which is in force
in the Colony of Natal. That is to say, the natives are
to be governed through the chiefs, and the tribal divisions
and organisation is to be as much as possible restored.
The chiefs or indunas will become salaried officials of the
Government, and the maintenance of order will, in the
first instance, be entrusted to them. In each division,
however, there will be a European official, the Native
Commissioner, to whom the chief will refer in matters in
* Chap, xii, pp. 217-18.
262 SOUTH AFRICA
which the interests of the white settlers are involved.
Further, the native police force is to be abolished, and only
European police will be employed in the future.
The requirements of the settlers have been met in a
generous spirit. The Company have promised to com-
pensate them for losses incurred in the destruction of
cattle, in pursuance of the Rinderpest regulations, and for
all losses caused by the insurrection. They have also
undertaken to complete the railway system as speedily
as possible, and to reduce the charges laid upon mining
properties.
In estimating the possibilities which the future holds for
Rhodesia, there is one feature of the insurrection which
must not be overlooked. Although Rhodesia is distinct-
ively an English colony, there are two considerable Dutch
settlements — one in Gazaland effected towards the end
of 1 89 1, and another south of Fort Charter, established
after the Matabele war. There were also at the time of
the Insurrection a number of Dutch Africanders employed
as carriers upon the roads, in addition to stray agricul-
tural settlers. Part of these Dutch settlers formed the
Africander Corps under Commandant Van Rensberg; and
the men of this corps fought throughout the insurrection
side by side with the British settlers. This union of the
races in the face of a common danger is a significant and
hopeful sign.
In conclusion, let me say one word as to the future.
Lord Salisbury, in a statement which he made* in the
House of Lords on the subject of the Soudan Expedition,
remarked that the operations of that expedition were limited
by the small amount of the funds at the disposal of the
Egyptian Government, and suggested that here was a field
for the activities of the millionaires who had financed the
"invasion" of the Transvaal. It was a humorous turn in
the mouth of the Prime Minister of England, but the idea
• In June 1896.
THE INSURRECTION IN RHODESIA 263
which underlay it was serious. That private individuals
should devote part of their wealth to the development of
the resources of the Empire is a thought which has been
brought home to the people of England by the object-lesson
which they have had in South Africa ; and it is one which
has taken hold of the national mind. As it is, Lord
Salisbury's account of what was going forward, pending
the assistance of the millionaires, was not disappointing.
Speaking of the responsibilities of England, the Premier
said : —
We shall not have restored Egypt to the position in which we
received her, we shall not have placed Egypt in that position of safety
in which she deserved to stand, until the Egyptian flag floats over
Khartoum.
But for the present the expedition must halt at Dongola,
for the " controlling factor is the question of finance."
One advantage of Dongola, he added, was "that it is on
the road to Kartoum." I could suggest that Kartoum also
has this advantage — that it is on the road to Uganda.
And if the millionaires have not come to the assistance of
the Soudan expedition, they are busy carrying forward the
British flag from the South of Africa northwards. If we
carry our minds forward for twenty years, and forecast the
results of this simultaneous advance towards Uganda, the
prospect which rises before our mental vision is inspiriting.
By that time the territory of British East Africa will
unite with that of the Eastern Soudan. The Uganda
railway will have done its work and brought the western
highlands into communication with the coast. Uganda
will be then in the position of Natal : that is to say, there
will be a small European population organising and con-
trolling the natives, and so developing the natural resources
of its own and the surrounding districts. Rhodesia will be
peopled with European settlers, and it will then be seen
that the temperate uplands of Mashonaland and Matabele-
land are the key to Central Africa ; since here alone can a
264 SOUTH AFRICA
considerable European population live under European
conditions, and so preserve the mental and physical char-
acteristics of the parent races. Politically, Rhodesia will
be the centre of a group of Colonies and Protectorates,
including Nyasaland, the territories of the British South
Africa Company north of the Zambesi, and the Bechuana-
land Protectorate. Here will be a British group bulky
enough to outweigh the Dutch Republics in a common
system which includes all the States and Colonies from
Lake Tanganyika to Cape Agulhas. Capetown and Cairo
will be united by telegraph, and the International Congo
State, traversed by the Stevenson Road, will alone obtrude
between the British system stretching northwards from
Uganda to Alexandria, and the consolidated and frankly
British South African Federation. Johannesburg will be
as populous as Sydney or Melbourne, and the Boer will
have passed out of knowledge as a political force.
If this forecast be realised — if this estimate of the
importance of Rhodesia be not excessive — it is fitting that
Englishmen should not forget that the acquisition of
Rhodesia is the work of Mr Cecil Rhodes.
NOTES.
1. Organisation of Dutch East India Company.
General Directory (or Chamber XVII.).
[This consisted of — eight repre-
sentatives of Chamber (or office)
of Amsterdam ; four of Zeeland ;
two of the Maas ; two of the North
Quarter (Hoorn and Enkhuizen) ;
and one sent by all these alter-
nately except Amsterdam. It met
at various places in Holland.]
Governor-General and Council of India.
[Sitting at Batavia (in Java), the
centre of the Company's settle-
ments in the East.]
1 I I
Admirals, Governors, and Commanders
who, with their Councils of Policy, administered the various settle-
ments of the Company formed in pursuance of the Charter (1602),
which granted a monopoly of the trade of the Netherlands "eastward
of the Cape of Good Hope, or westward of the Straits of Magellan."
2. Origin of Conflict with the Natives (Hottentots).
Extract from a despatch dated July 29, 1659, of Commander Van
Riebeck and Council to the Governor-General and Council, Batavia.
" The Hottentoos have been again at work . . . the fiscal Gabbema
. . . took two . . . killed one . . . one taken prisoner.
" The said prisoner, who was one of the Caepmans, and spoke toler-
able Dutch, being asked why they did us this injury, declared . . .
because they saw that we were breaking up the best land and grass,
where their cattle were accustomed to graze, trying to establish our-
selves everywhere, with houses and farms, as if we were never more to
remove, but designed to take for our permanent occupation more and
265
266 SOUTH AFRICA
more of this Cape Country, which had belonged to them from tin:e
immemorial. Aye, so that their cattle could not get at the water with-
out passing over the corn land, which we would not allow them to do ;
that they consequently resolved (as it was their land) to dishearten us,
by taking away the cattle (with which they could see that we broke up
and destroyed the best land) ; and if that would not produce the effect
— by burning our houses and corn until we were all forced to go away :
that Doman had also put it into their heads that after all the houses in
the country were destroyed, the fort could be easily surprised — as the
earth walls were built with a slope — and then the Dutch might be
forced quite to abandon the countiy ..." ("The Record.")
3. Title by deed of purchase.
The form of the first of these two " agreements " was as follows : —
"Agreement entered into between the Commissioner Arnout van
Overbeck with the Council at the Cabo de Boa Esperance, on the part
of the General Chartered Dutch East India Company, on [of] the one
part ; and the HoUentoo Prince Manckhagou, alias Schacher, heredi-
tary sovereign of the land of the Cabo de Boa Esperance, on [of] the
other part.
" First the said Prince Schacher promises for himself, his heirs and
descendants, to sell, cede and deliver, in full, perpetual and hereditary
property, as he doth by these presents sell and deliver, to the said
Company, the whole district of the Cabo de Boa Esperance, beginning
from the Lion Hill and extending along the coast of Table Bay, with
Ilout and Saldanha Bays inclusive, with all the lands, rivers, creeks,
forests and pastures, therein situated and comprised, together with their
dependencies, so that the same may be everywhere cultivated and occu-
pied, without let or hindrance from any one — with this understanding,
however, that he and his Kraals and herds of cattle, may come freely
and without molestation to the outermost farms of the said district and
where neither the Company nor the freemen depasture their cattle, and
that he shall not be expelled from the same by our nation, by force,
and without cause.
[Secondly, the Prince shall not annoy, &c., the Company's servants.
Thirdly and fourthly, he shall act as an ally of the Company.]
"The Honble. Company promise on [of] the other part, to give and
present to the said Prince Schacher, for this surrender and sale of the
whole Cape district, as is now given and presented, once for all a sum
of four thousand reals of 8, in sundry goods and articles of merchandise,
this day delivered to his contentment.
[Secondly, to allow him peaceable possession, &c. ; and to assist and
protect him against enemies, &c. ]
"All which aforesaid points of agreement . . . have been read over
to the said Prince . . . and the sundry wares paid . . . whereupon
the contract was confirmed on both sides by shaking hands, and signed
and sealed by the Company's seal.
NOTES a67
" Done in the Fortress, the Good Hope, April 19th, 1672.
Thus X marked by the Prince
Schacher aforesaid.
Thus X marked by T. Tachou,
chief person next to the Prince.
[L. S.] Aernout van Overbeke.
[L. S.] Albert van Brugel.
[L. S.] Conrad van Brietenback.
[L. S.] J. Coon.
" In my presence— H. GRUDOP."
A similar deed of May 5, 1672, conveyed "the whole district of the
land called ' Hottentoos Holland ' " to the Company for goods esti-
mated at 4000 reals : and the captain of a ship despatched to Natal was
instructed {inter alia) to purchase from the chief " the bay of Natal and
the adjoining land," to have the purchase " attested by a deed in com-
mon form," to pay the estimated price of 19 or 20,000 guilders (florins)
in "beads, copper, ironmongery, &c.," and to take care "that the
articles of merchandise are not noticed in the deed. " The actual value
of the merchandise given by the two agreements was very trivial, as
appears from the following : —
Extract from despatch of Gov : Isbrand Goske and Council to
Chamber XVn., 1673, May 10.
"Hottentots Holland was last year ceded, &c., for the sum of
R.4000 which was paid with merchandise of the value of/8i 16. prime
cost, . . . The land of the Cape which the owners often complained
had been wrongfully withheld from them, &c., was also ceded ... for
a like sum of K. 4000, but which was paid with the value — in tobacco,
beads, brandy, bread and other trifles — of /33 17, also prime cost
..." These sums amount respectively to not quite £t, and
£2, i6s. od. in English money. ("The Record.")
4. Conditions under which the Huguenot Refugees were permitted
to settle at the Cape.
" Reglement de I'assemblee de Dix-sept . . ,
[i. The Company is to provide means of transport from Holland to
the Cape.
ii. The Refugee must undertake to support himself by labour or
trade ; but implements, seed, &c., to be advanced by the Company and
repaid by the Settlers.
iii. The Refugee must (except by special permission of Chamber
XVn.) remain for five years at the Cape ; and, if he then returns, must
pay for his passage out, and further sell all his property acquired at the
Cape, receiving its equivalent in letters of exchange of the Company.
iv. He must take the following oath of allegiance ;]
" Je promets et jure d'estre soumis et fidelle a leurs hautes puissances
les Estats Generaux des Provinces Unies, nos souverains maistres et
seigneurs, a son Altesse, monsieur le Prince d'Orange, comme Gouver-
neur, Capitaine et Amiral General, et au Directeurs de la Compagnie
2 68 SOUTH AFRICA
Generale des Indes Orientales de ce pais, Pareillement au Gouveneur
General des Indes, ainsi, qu'a tous les gouverneurs, commandants, et
autres, qui durant le voyage par mer et en suite par terra auront com-
mandement sur nous.
" Et que j'observeray et executeray fidellement, et de point en point,
toutes les lois et ordonnances, faites ou a faire tant par Messieurs les
Directeurs, par le Gouverneur General et par les Conseillers, que par le
Gouverneur ou Commandant du lieu de ma residence, et de me gouver-
ner et comporter en toutes choses comme un bon et fidelle sujet. Ainsi
Dieu m'aide.
" Fait et attest^ dans I'assemblee des Dix-sept le 20 Octobre, 1687."
("The Record.")
5. Origin of "trekking" or the nomadic manner of life pursued by
the Dutch farmers.
In 1705 the Government issued " loan leases," or occupation licences,
resumable at any period by the Company. The bad effect which this
uncertainty of tenure produced upon the character of the loan-lessees
was soon apparent, as appears from the following : —
Extract from a Resolution of the Council, dated Feb. 13, 1770 (passed
after receiving a report from the Landdrosts (Magistrates) of Stellen-
bosch and Swellendam, and forbidding the issue of further loan-
leases).
" And as it has further appeared by the said report to the especial
displeasure of the Council that the aforesaid Commission, on their way
from the Fish to the Gamtoos River, met several persons grazing con-
siderable herds of cattle, according to their own pleasure, and without
possessing there, or thereabouts, farms in loan from the Company ;
while others did not scruple to wander about with their cattle, hither
and thither, several days' journey from their loan farms ; — it was accord-
ingly taken into consideration, that the same not only tends to the
evident injury of the Honourable Company, with reference to the income
derived from the rents of cattle farms, but, that it must be concluded
beyond doubt, that such covetous conduct is chiefly practised in order to
enable them more conveniently to carry on an illicit traffic in the barter-
ing of cattle, whether with the Hottentots residing thereabouts, or with
the so-called Kaffirs as — among other appearances noticed by the Com-
mission— sufficiently appears from their having found a beaten waggon-
road leading out of the Swellendam district to the residence of the
Kaffirs : and this all notwithstanding that the said cattle barter has been
from time to time prohibited on pain of bodily and capital punishment,
especially by the proclamation still in force of the 8th December 1739.
It is resolved, &c.
"In the Castle, the Good Hope, Feb. 13, 1770.
(Sipted) R. TULBAGH.
J. V. PLETTENBURG."
(and eight others. ) (" The Record. ")
NOTES 269
Origin of the " Apprentices " of the Boers.
"... The Dutch masters went still farther (i.e. than claiming the
children of their slaves) ; for the children of Hottentots living with
them as hired servants, although both father and mother belonged to
that race, were yet retained as slaves till they arrived at the age of
twenty-five years ; and although the laws in favour of the Hottentots
obliged the Dutch to register such children at the Cape, and to give
them their freedom at this age ; yet the period of their liberty was in
reality little nearer than before, unless they deserted into the wild and
uncultivated parts of the interior, far beyond the reach of their masters.
Many arts were employed to retain them beyond the age of twenty-five
years ; it was usual to keep them in ignorance of the date of their birth,
and thus make them continue to work till their strength began to fail
them. When old, &c., they were discharged ... to misery."
Dutch Government of Hottentots.
" From policy, which they have been willing to pass for a sense of
justice, the Dutch have paid some marks of attention and respect to the
chiefs or heads of these tribes ; and have publicly nominated them
captains over the rest ; adding, at the same time, as a badge of office,
a chain and staff, or pole, headed with silver or brass, with the arms of
the Republic engraved on it. These chiefs, in return for these marks
of distinction, are obliged to appear at certain periods at Capetown,
before the Governor and Council, and there give an account of the
people under them, and receive orders from the Dutch. After perform-
ing this duty, they are generally sent back with presents of gin, brandy,
tobacco, iron and toys."
(P'rom an account of the Colony written by Captain Robert Percival,
who visited the Cape in 1796, i.e. the second year of the temporary
British occupation. )
6. Slave Emancipation.
When the Slave Emancipation Act was passed on August 7, 1833,
by the Imperial Parliament, ;i^20,ooo,oc)0 was voted as compensation to
slave proprietors. The official valuation of the 35,000 slaves in the Cape
was ^3, 000,000 ; but instead of this sum being paid, only ;!^i,247,ooo
was apportioned to the Cape. Not only so, but the compensation money
was made payable in London, and the colonists were compelled to employ
agents, whose charges still further reduced the sums of money to which
the claimants were entitled. Some owners refused to forward their
claims at all ; and in 1843 an unclaimed balance of ^^5906 due to the
Cape proprietors of slaves was transferred from the National Debt office
to the Master of the Supreme Court at Capetown, and by him invested
to the credit of the Education Department on account of mission
schools.
As originally passed, seven years' apprenticeship was allowed as an
intermediate period ; but this was shortened to five years'. August ist,
2 70 SOUTH AFRICA
1838, was the "day of freedom" elsewhere, but at the Cape on
December i, 1838, the former proprietors of slaves saw. . . "the
whole of their farming pursuits and plans destroyed : no bribe, nor
entreaty, I believe did avail in one single instance to induce any one of
these now free persons to stay over that day ..."
" In some places remunerative wages were offered . . . but in the
Eastern country districts this was impossible, and the agriculturists there
found themselves totally deprived of every vestige of labour to improve
or cultivate their farms, or even to superintend or herd their flocks."
The above is taken from Judge Cloete's "Five Lectures on the
Emigration of the Dutch Farmers," etc.
These were delivered before the Natal Society, and published at
Capetown in 1856. They contain an expression of opinion rendered
valuable by the fact that the writer was himself both a Dutch colonist
and a high official, being in fact the Commissioner appointed to estab-
lish British authority over the emigrant farmers in Natal in 1843.
7. Origin of the Feud between the Missionaries and the Dutch
Settlers.
[Circuit Courts were established by Lord Caledon in l8ll.]
"... The very first circuit which proceeded through the Colony
was furnished with a calendar containing between 70 and 80 cases, of
murders, aggravated assaults, and the like ; which the missionaries Dr
Van der Kemp and the Rev. J. Read, constituting themselves the pro-
tectors of the Hottentot race, and who had then established the first
missionary school or location on the frontier (at Bethelsdorp) deliberately
brought forward, and transmitted to the local government, as charges
against the members of almost every respectable family on the frontier
... it is but just to add, that of the long list of atrocious crimes
thus enquired into with the utmost care and impartiality, not one single
instance of murder was proved against the accused, although in a few
cases acts of personal assault and transgression of some colonial law
were brought home to them, and punished accordingly."
[The parties accused — there were 100 families involved and over 1000
witnesses summoned and examined — had to pay heavy expenses, because,
under the then colonial law, the public prosecutor could claim costs in
any event, and was himself entitled to double fees.]
. . . " all those results engendered a bitter feeling of hostility towards
the administration of justice in general, and more particularly against
the missionaries, who had brought forward these accumulated charges
against such a number of colonists." (Cloeie.)
8. Origin of Kafir Wars.
The great Fish River was the eastern, and an imaginary line the
northern, boundary of the colony as surrendered to the English. The
arid deserts to the north forbade migration ; on the eastern boundary
the colonists were confronted by the Amakosa . . . "Who, far from
allowing any inroads upon their own territories, commenced a system
NOTES 271
of aggression upon our colonists, which extended over the greatest part
of the Graaf Reinet and Uitenhage districts, from which they were not
finally expelled until the year 1812. But this system of aggression they
have never abandoned, but on the contrary have perseveringly carried
on for nearly seventy years ; each succeeding war having only formed
them into a more dangerous, experienced, and vindictive foe." (Cloete. )
Kafir methods of warfare.
" The Kafir, at the first onset, is perhaps less ferocious than cunning,
and more intent upon improving his own interests by theft than in tak-
ing life from the mere spirit of cruelty : but once roused, he is like the
wild beast after the taste of blood, and loses all the best attributes of
humanity. The movement of a body of these savages through the land
may be likened to *a rushing and mighty wind.' On, on they sweep !
like a blast ; fiUing the air with a strange tuhirr — reminding one, on a
grand scale, of a flight of locusts.
"An officer [in the war of 1835] had his attention suddenly arrested
by a cloud of dust ; then a silent mass appeared, and lo ! a multitude of
beings, more resembling demons than men, rushed past. There were
no noises, no sound of footsteps, nothing but the shiver of the assegais,
which gleamed as they dashed onwards."
Attack on Fort Peddie.
This was an incident in the "War of the Axe" (1846-48). Fort
Peddie was "a mere earthen embankment" held by a handful of
soldiers. The account is that of "an eye-witness" published in a
frontier paper.
" Were it not that life and death were concerned in it, I should have
pronounced it [the attack] a most beautiful sight. The Kaffir com-
manders sent their aides-de-camp from one party to another, just as you
would see it done on a field day with European troops. The main
bodies were continually increasing with horse and footmen, and soon
after eleven the array was truly terrific. The largest body was to the
westward ; finding their schemes of drawing the troops out did not
succeed, small parties advanced in skirmishing order, and then the two
divisions of Pato and the Gaikas moved towards each other, as if intend-
ing a combined attack on some given point. Colonel Lindsay was
superintending the working of the gun himself, and, as soon as a body
of Gaikas came within range, a shot was sent into the midst of them.
. . . The Kaffirs now extended themselves in a line six miles in
length. These advancing at the same time so filled the valley that it
seemed a mass of moving Kaffirs ; rockets and shells were poured
rapidly on them, and presently a tremendous fire of musketry poured
over our heads. The enemy, however, did not come near enough for
the infantry to play upon them, and only a few shots were fired from
the infantry barracks. . . , The actual fighting was between the Fingoes
and the Kaffirs ; the troops could not have gone out without exposing
272 SOUTH AFRICA
the forts to danger, as there were masses ready to pour in from all
quarters." (From Mrs Harriet Ward's " P'ive Years in Kaffirland,")
9. Sir George Grey's Kafir Policy.
Sir George Grey (i) established schools and hospitals, (2) broke
down the power of the chiefs by (a) purchasing from them by monthly
stipends the right to inflict fines and punishments, and introducing
European Magistrates to administer justice, (d) discrediting witch-
doctors who were the instruments of the chief's cupidity, (3) substituted
individual for tribal tenure of land.
The measures thus initiated have since been adopted as the basis of
the native policy of the Cape Government.
"The aim of the policy of the Colonial Government since 1855 has
been to establish and maintain peace, to diffuse civilisation and Christi-
anity, and to establish society on the basis of individual property and
personal industry. The agencies employed are the magistrate, the
missionary, the schoolmaster, and the trader." (Noble, "History of
South Africa.")
To this statement we may add a pregnant remark of Sir Langham
Dale (Late Superintendent General of Education).
" Every native who owns a plot of land or a plough or a wagon and
oxen is a hostage for peace. "
Another measure of Sir George Grey was the introduction of a body
(2000) of agricultural immigrants from Germany into the valley of the
Buffalo river (East London is the port) in 185S-59. These immigrants
formed a useful complement to the military settlers of the Anglo-German
legion previously introduced in 1857.
Sir George Grey is also remarkable for the daring assumption of per-
sonal responsibility by which, in Lord Malmesbury's words, he "probably
saved India." In September 1858, he despatched the returning troops
from China to India, and "stripped the colony of troops to aid the
Indian Government."
10. Sir George Grey's forecast.
The necessity for a federal union of the South African States was
clearly stated by Sir George Grey in a despatch to Sir E. B. Lytton,
dated November 19, 1858. It must be remembered that he (Grey) had
seen the provincial governments of New Zealand successfully united
by a central government. The whole despatch contains a masterly
review of the conditions created by the previous policy of non-inter-
ference, and a no less masterly forecast of future dangers.
Of the general results of the non-interference policy he writes : —
" 16. The defects of the system thus described [i.e. the recognition of
the Dutch Republics, the separation of Natal, and the abandonment of
the Native chiefs — measures which he has collectively called ' the dis-
memberment of South Africa '] appear to be that the country must be
always at war in some direction, as some one of the several states, in
NOTES ^73
pursuit of its supposed interests, will be involved in difficulties, either
with some European or native state. Every such war forces all the
other states into a position of an armed neutrality or of interference.
For, if the state is successful in the war it is waging, a native race will
be broken up, and none can tell what territories its dispersed hordes
may fall upon. Nor can the other states be assured that the coloured
tribes generally will not sympathise in the war, and that a general rising
may not take place. Ever since South Africa has been broken up in
the manner above detailed, large portions of it have always been in a
state of constant anxiety and apprehension from these causes. The
smallness and weakness of the states, and a knowledge that they are
isolated bodies, bound by no ties of interest or common government
with other states, has encouraged the natives to resist and dare them,
whilst the nature of the existing treaties, and the utter abandonment of
the natives by Great Britain, to whom they had hitherto looked up, has
led the natives to combine for their mutual protection, and thus to
acquire a sense of strength and boldness such as they have not hitherto
shown ; so that, whilst the Europeans have appeared to grow weak,
they have felt themselves increase in strength and importance.
" 17. Again, such petty states must be constant foci of intrigues and
internal commotions, revolutions, or intestine wars. ..."
Of the future attitude of the Dutch population he says : —
" 14. I think there can be no doubt that, in any great public, or
popular, or national question or movement, the mere fact of calling
these people different nations would not make them so, nor would the
fact of a mere fordable stream running between them sever their sym-
pathies or prevent them from acting in unison. I think that many
questions might arise in which, if the government on the south side of
the Orange River took a different view from that on the north side of the
river, it might be very doubtful which of the two governments the great
mass of the people would obey. "
This was the state of things which Sir Bartle Frere was, twenty
years later, commissioned to remedy by giving effect to Lord Car-
narvon's bill for *' enabling the Union of South African Colonies and
States," passed by the Imperial Parliament in 1877.
Extract from despatch of April 12, 1877 (Lord Carnarvon to Sir
Bartle Frere).
"5.1 request that you will lay this despatch with its enclosure (the
draft bill) before the Houses of the Legislature, and [transmit copies
to the Presidents of the Free State and of the Transvaal Republic]. I
will only add an expression of my hope that they will perceive, in the
alterations I have now made, a further evidence of my regard for the
natural wish of any government or community which may propose to
take advantage of the measure that no question should be prejudged
which can properly be left open for subsequent consideration. [I have
sent copies of the bill, &c., to the Lieutenant-Governor of Natal.] "
S
2 74 SOUTH AFRICA
11. Prophecy of Nongase.
Nongase, niece of Umlakazi, prophesied that on Feb. l8, 1857, a
hurricane would sweep the earth, the ancestors of the Kafirs would
rise with countless herds of cattle, and that they, and the followers of
the prophetess, would sweep the white men and the Fingoes from the
earth. Under the influence of this promise the Kafirs destroyed their
cattle and neglected to sow their corn. 50,000 died of starvation,
34,000 were brought into the Cape Colony and employed, and others
were assisted in their own country. Sir George Grey had carefully
watched the course of events, and made provision both for defending the
frontier and assisting the starving Kafirs.
12. Annexation of the Transvaal.
The Justification for the annexation of the Transvaal (efifected
under instructions from Lord Carnarvon before Sir Bartle Frere com-
menced his period of Governorship) appears from the following : —
Extract from despatch of December 11, 1878 (Frere to Sir M. Hicks-
Beach).
"32. The Zulu king and his 'dog' Sikukuni . . . were able to
challenge the power that had destroyed Dingaan . . . and the English
Government believed there was a very serious danger of Zulus and
other native tribes driving back the white settlers in the Transvaal,
and once more contesting the supremacy of race on our northern
border.
"33. This danger was one main ground for the annexation of the
Transvaal. . . .
"34. This is a sound argument ... if we do really protect the
Transvaal ; but it will cease to secure acquiescence . . . unless [we
' let the natives know that if the English Government is non-aggressive,
it is so from a sense of justice, and from no want of power ']."
13. Character of Ketshwayo.
In reply to a remonstrance from the Governor of Natal, on the sub-
ject of the murder of Zulu women, in which he was reminded of the
promises he made on his coronation to the British representative then
present, Ketshwayo said (1876) :
"Did I ever tell Shepstone? Did he tell the white people I made
such an arrangement? Because, if he did, he has deceived them. I
do kill, but do not consider yet I have done anything in the way of
killing. Why do the white people start at nothing? I have not yet
begun. I have yet to kill ; it is the custom of our nation, and I shall
not depart from it. Why does the Governor of Natal speak to me
about my laws? Do I go to Natal and dictate to him about his laws?
I shall not agree to any laws or rules from Natal, and by so doing
throw the great Kraal which I govern into the water. My people will
not listen unless they are killed ; and, while wishing to be friends with
NOTES 275
the English, I do not agree to give over my people to laws sent by
them. Have I not asked the English Government to allow me to wash
my spears, since the death of my father Umpandi, and they have kept
playing with me all this time, and treating me like a child ? Go back
and tell the English that I shall act on my own account, and if they
wish me to agree to their laws, I shall leave and become a wanderer ;
but before I go it will be seen, as I shall not go without having acted.
Go back and tell the white man this, and let them hear it well. The
Governor of Natal and I are equal. He is governor of Natal, and I
am governor here." (From despatch of Frere, December 10, 1878.)
14. Recall of Sir Bartle Frere.
The reasons for the defeat of the Colonial Government and the
failure of the proposal for a Federation Conference in June 1880, appear
from the following : —
Extracts from Sir Bartle Frere's despatch of August 3, 1880, reply-
ing to telegraphic announcement of his recall sent by Lord Kimberley
on August I.
In 5- he complains of the unfairness of leaving him in office " con-
demned to removal upon change of government " [the Liberals came in
power in the spring of this year], and " weakened and discredited by
the want of the full confidence of their successors, to attempt such a
task as forwarding the policy of a union of South African Provinces."
And continues :
" 7. My ministers loyally made the attempt . . . relying on the
tradition that the varying political views of parties in England did not
influence the great lines of English colonial policy, and that in attempt-
ing the task undertaken at the desire of your lordship's predecessor, they
would enjoy the benefit of the hearty support of Her Majesty's present
Government.
" 13. [The position of the Transvaal . . . was an essential element
in the question of South African union. There were present in the
colony at the time delegates from the disaffected party in the Transvaal],
ably directed by leading members of the local opposition. They were
generally believed to be in close correspondence with some leading
members of the Liberal party in England, who were said to assure them
of success . . . [Members of the Cape Parliament who represented
Dutch constituencies were asked to postpone the Conference proposals
to the question of cancelling the annexation of the Transvaal]."
Lord Kimberley says, in his reply to this despatch (addressed to the
Administrator of the Cape, and dated October 14, 1884) : —
That (l) there has not been " the smallest indication of any difference
of opinion between Her Majesty's Government and Sir Bartle Frere "
on the question of Confederation ; (2) that it was precisely for this
reason that the Government of the Colony was not taken out of
Sir Bartle Frere's hands on the change of Government in England, and
2 76 SOUTH AFRICA
because they did not wish it to seem that they withdrew their support
from him and his Colonial ministers "at the critical moment when the
conference resolutions were about to be brought before the Cape Par-
liament."
The despatch concludes,
" 6. Her Majesty's Government fully recognise that Sir Bartle Frere
failed in carrj'ing through that policy from no shortcoming on his own
part, and they are content to accept his statements of the reason of that
failure as evidence that the causes lie much deeper than any mere per-
sonal considerations."
Of these "causes," the strongest was the sympathy of the Colonists
of Dutch extraction at the Cape with their kinsmen in the Transvaal.
In fact, the words of Sir George Grey (written in 1858) had come true.
The whole Dutch population in South Africa were "acting in unison."
15. The relationship of England to the Transvaal.
Extract from a despatch of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach to Sir Garnet
Wolseley, November 20, 1879.
"4. . . . The power and authority of England have for many years
been paramount there [i.e. in the Transvaal] ; and neither by the Sand
River Convention of 1852, nor at any other time, did Her Majesty's
Government surrender the right and duty of requiring that the Trans-
vaal should be governed with a view to the common safety of the
various European communities. It has long been obvious that the
largest measure of freedom which the country could enjoy consistently
with the fulfilment of this condition, would be found in that union which
seems to have been contemplated by the Volksraad in 1877, when by
a resolution quoted and adopted in the memorial of the Boer Committee,
dated April 16, and again in their memorandum of the same date, they
declared their readiness to enter into a closer union with Her Majesty's
Colonies for the benefit of South Africa.
"5. As there has never been any room for doubting that Her
Majesty's power would continue to be supreme in South Africa, the
union provided for by the South African Act, 1877, is practically that
which the people of the Transvaal have professed to desire ; and it is
obvious that, as a member of a South African Confederation, the country
might receive a constitution which would confer upon the people, under
the paramount authority of the British Crown, the fullest independence
compatible with that thorough unity of action which the common welfare
demands ; and would enable them practically to govern themselves
according to their own views in all matters, except those as to which
an independent power, unless determined to be hostile, would be obliged
to co-oi:.erate with its neighbours."
NOTES 277
16. The attitude of the Orange Free State.
Extract from telegram of President Brand, Bloemfontein, to Consul
for Orange Free State, London (Feb. 15, 1881).
" . . . As soon as I heard that a collision had taken place, I ordered
circulars to be written to our border Landdrosts, to publish and make
known to our Field Cornets and Burghers that, as their President and
Friend, I requested and directed them to abstain from taking any part
in the unfortunate state of affairs ; that by so doing the time might
perhaps come when, by our friendly offices, the Government and people
of the Free State might be of real service to secure the blessings of
peace, and assist in a satisfactory settlement."
Extract from Sir Evelyn Wood's despatch announcing agreement to
terms (March 21, 1881) : —
" Brand's presence has been invaluable." (c — 2837.)
17. The attitude of the Africander party in the Cape Colony.
Telegrams from Mr Hofmeyr, the leader of the Africander party in
the Cape Colony, to General Joubert.
" March 8.
" Friends have heard with great pleasure armistice, as promising of
peace. Believe British Government anxious to meet wishes of Boers,
but difficulty is how to grant concession either before you have desisted
from opposition, or British arms victorious. We pray you help Govern-
ment, by adopting conciliatory tone, and offering desist from armed
opposition, on tacit understanding that no further use be made by
British of such desisting than to send limited number of troops across
border, and provisioning garrisons. Also hope if Commissioners pro-
posed if either Wood or Robinson, with Brand and Villiers, you will
not hesitate accept, if such commission have full power."
" March 11.
"After a thorough investigation by my friends, independence can be
secure in no other way than as follows : the assembly of a Commission
as proposed in my former telegram ; should the Commission be ap-
pointed with full power, your conditional independence must be begged
for through the people as a reclamation ; but in any case, before the
Commission can be appointed, either the British arms must have con-
quered, or the Boers must have given a tangible proof of submission in
the eyes of the world ; consider earnestly I pray you what is said in my
previous telegram ; also that, in case no agreement is come to, the
armistice will give rise to great dissatisfaction among the Boers, and give
occasion for fresh accusation of untrustworthiness against the Boers.
God give you peace." (c — 2837.)
2 78 SOUTH AFRICA
1 8. The Retrocession of the Transvaal.
Letter of Sir George Colley to General Joubert before the advance
upon the Boer position at Langsnek.
"Head Quarters Camp, Fort Amiel,
"January 23, 1881.
"Sir,
" I duly received the letter of December 17, signed by your-
self and other leaders of the insurgents ; and, simultaneously with it,
the news of the attacks made at different points on Her Majesty's
forces. . . .
"The men who follow you are, many of them, ignorant, and know
and understand little of anything outside their own camp. But you,
who are well educated and have travelled, cannot but be aware how
hopeless is the struggle you have embarked upon, and how little any
accidental success can affect the ultimate result. To save, therefore,
the innocent lives that must be sacrificed and the blood that must be
uselessly spilt in a prolonged resistance, I call upon you to dismiss your
followers ; and when the forces now in arms against Her Majesty have
dispersed, I shall be prepared to give attention to, and to forward to
Her Majesty's Government for consideration, any representations which
are made to me of grievances under which any of Her Majesty's subjects
in the Transvaal believe themselves to suffer.
"I have, &c."
Joubert's reply.
" Camp of Commandant General,
"January 27, iSSi.
"... We are unable to satisfy your demands in terms of your
letter. So long as your Excellency addresses us as rebels, and inti-
mates that the leaders are contemptuously misleading a multitude
of ignorant people, it is utterly hopeless for us to find proper words to
reply.
" But before God we would not be justified if we did not avail our-
selves of this, perhaps the last opportunity, of speaking to you, as the
representative of Her Majesty the Queen and the people of England, for
whom we have the highest respect.
" We must emphatically repeat that we are willing to assist in respect
of the wishes of the Imperial Government for the Confederation of South
Africa.
[Refers to the Proclamation of the Triumvirate] . . , " We would
be satisfied with the cancellation of the annexation and the restoration
of the South African Republic under the patronage of Her Majesty the
Queen, so that once a year the British Flag shall be hoisted, all in
strict accordance with the above-mentioned claim of our first pro-
clamation.
NOTES 279
" If your Excellency perseveres to refute this, we shall submit our-
selves to our destiny. But the Lord will provide.
"Ihave, &c." (c— 2866.)
Colley moved out and attacked on January 28. Then followed
Langsnek (Jan, 28) ; Ingogo Heights (Feb. 8) ; Majuba Hill, and
death of Colley (Feb. 27).
The terms actually offered by Sir Evelyn Wood, and accepted by the
Boers, were these : —
(i. ) Complete amnesty to all, including leaders, except to persons who
had committed acts contrary to rules of civilised warfare. (Despatch of
Colonial Secretary of March 8. )
(ii.) Commission named — Sir H. Robinson, Chief Justice de Villiers,
and Sir E. Wood ; President Brand to be present at proceedings.
(iii.) Complete self-government under British suzerainty, with British
Resident at Pretoria ; provision to be made for (a) protection of native
interests, (d) arrangement of frontier affairs, and (c) relations with Foreign
Powers by the Commission.
(iv.) Complete self-government to be granted, at latest, within six
months. (Despatch of Colonial Secretary of March 12, and Sir
E. Wood of March 21.)
They were ratified on receipt of telegram from Colonial Secretary on
March 22. (c— 2837.)
19. Behaviour of British troops in action against the Boers.
The charge of the 58th at Langsnek.
" Colonel Deane, with splendid gallantry, tried to carry the hill by a
rush. His horse was shot but he extricated himself, and, dashing for-
ward on foot, fell, riddled with bullets, ten yards in front of the foremost
man . . . the 58th, which had fallen back leisurely (supported by part
of the 60th), without haste or confusion, reformed at the foot of the hill,
and marched back into position in as good order, and with as erect and
soldierly bearing, as when it marched out." (From despatch of Com-
mander Romilly.)
Corporal Farmer and Private Murray were recommended respectively
for the Victoria Cross and the Distinguished Service Medal, by General
Sir Evelyn Wood, for bravery displayed at Majuba Hill.
"Corporal Farmer showed a spirit of self-abnegation, and an example
of cool bravery which cannot be too highly commended. While the
Boers closed with our troops near the wells. Corporal Farmer held a
white flag over the wounded, and when the arm holding the flag was
shot through, he called out that he had 'another.' He then raised the
flag with the other arm and continued to do so until that also was pierced
by a bullet.
28o SOUTH AFRICA
" Private John Murray was close to the brow over our line of advance
during the final forward movement of the Boers. A Scotchman in the
Boer ranks called upon Private Murray to surrender. The latter replied
' I'll see you d d first,' and jumped down, receiving a bullet-wound
in the arm. Half-way down the hill his knee fell out of joint, but,
obtaining the assistance of a comrade to restore it to place, he returned
at six o'clock with his rifle and side-arms to camp, where he was seen
by Second-Lieutenant Sinclair-Wemyss, of the 22nd Highlanders."
(From despatch of General Wood to Secretary for War.)
It is noticeable that three companies of the 92nd Highlanders — the
regiment which was most distinguished in the march to Candahar — were
in action at Majuba. (c — 2950.)
20. Mr Pearson's argument from Natal.
Natal is a case in point, and " the case of Natal is most instructive
for what may be expected in Africa generally" (p. 36). In 1891 the
colony had a European population of only 36,000 out of a total of
481,000 inhabitants. Moreover, " the lower races have nearly doubled
since 1863, when one-seventh of the population was European."
The weak point in Mr Pearson's argument is the absence of analogy
between Natal and "Africa "as a whole. Africa cannot increase by
immigration, but only by natural increment.
(i) But in Natal the growth of the Native population is not due to
natural increment, but mainly to immigration. The Kafirs are attracted
by the leniency and security of British rule, and these immigrants have
sometimes travelled 500 or 600 miles on foot from the interior. (Peace,
" Our Colony of Natal," p. 44.)
(2) The growth of commerce has enhanced the value of the cow, an
animal adopted by the Kafir as the general measure of wealth, and, in
particular, the medium in which the bride-price is paid. The Natal
Legislature, so far from fearing the increase of the natives, have actually
had to pass a law, fixing the legal maximum price for a bride at ten
cows, in order to prevent the operation of this check on marriage.
(Natal Laws, 1891, No. 19.)
(3) Mr Pearson's figures do not allow for a recent increase in the
white population due to immigration. The figures, as given by the
Colonial Office Report (1891-92), are as follows : —
1879. 1891,
Whites, . . 22,654 46,788
Indian Coolies, . 16,999 41.142
Kafirs, . . 319,934 455.983
NOTES 281
21. Change of opinion in the Cape Colony.
The following extract is from Mr Leonard's (late Attorney-General)
speech at the meeting held on September 24, 1884, at Capetown, to
protest against the abandonment of Bechuanaland (and the trade route
to the interior) by England. This meeting was termed by the Volksblad
" the most important meeting held in the colony since that held in
1849 to protest against the formation of a penal settlement at the Cape."
His words indicate that a great change had taken place in the public
opinion of the colony, as compared with that prevalent in 1879-1880
(the period of the Transvaal War). In fact, for the first time the ques-
tion of the northward expansion of the whites was recognised to be a
question of civilisation, and not one of racial jealousy.
"Certain individuals in this colony, and certain individuals in the
interior states have made up their mind to trade upon the ignorance of
the poor people in the Transvaal, who think the people of Great Britain
have been defeated at Laings Nek and Majuba, and the object of their
intrigues is to destroy the British supremacy in South Africa. . . . This
has been the object of some of the people of the Transvaal, and per fas
et nefas to make this colony a hidebound dependency of the British
Crown. Their object has been ... to cross our northern boundary,
to take land down to the Indian Ocean on the East, and down to the
Kalahari on the West, in order that this portion of the British Empire
may for ever be shut in, and British sentiment be destroyed ; that so
the Transvaal, by its powers of unlimited expansion, shall become the
paramount state in South Africa ; and with them is to rest whether we
shall be graciously allowed to guard our coasts, or whether that simple
privilege shall be denied us. . . .
** It would be a disastrous thing to everyone if Great Britain should
lose her supremacy here ; and the withdrawal of the British flag from
this country would be disastrous not only to loyal subjects of Her
Majesty, but to the sedition-mongers, the traitors, and the rascals who
have for years past endeavoured to break down our British supremacy.
All South Africa would then be reduced to the same state as the Trans-
vaal— a country without a Government — and I should be sorry to see
this colony in the state of the South African Republic ; and I should
be sorry to see this country under the flag of mighty Germany or of
Republican France.
•' Well, gentlemen, I came to say my say, and I think I have said it.
We, as loyal subjects of the Queen, as law-abiding and law-loving
people, whether born subjects of Her Majesty or not, have been
challenged to say our say, we have been told England durst not move
hand nor foot to maintain her honour, to uphold her supremacy, be-
cause of the colonists. I am not going to speak of the colonists of
Rooi Grond, who slaughter young people of five, six, seven, and eight
years of age, nor of colonists who shoot women, but I claim to-night to
speak for ten thousand, or one hundred thousand, in this colony, and 1
say that is our answer to the taunt which has been put upon us."
(From the Cape Times, September 25, 1884.)
282 SOUTH AFRICA
22. The Diamond Laws.
Under the Trade in Diamonds Consolidation Act (No. 48, 1882),
(inter alia) : —
(i) It is declared unlawful for any person to have in his possession
any rough or uncut diamond unless he is able to produce his proper
permit for the same, or to account satisfactorily for, or prove his right
to, the possession of the same. Only duly licensed dealers, etc., are
permitted to buy, etc., any rough or uncut diamond. The penalty for
contravention is a fine not exceeding ^^looo, or imprisonment up to
fifteen years, or both.
(2) Persons finding diamonds on private property are required to
make a declaration of the fact within fourteen days to the Resident
Magistrate of the district.
(3) All persons authorised to deal, etc., in diamonds are required to
keep a register of their transactions. Such record including (a) date
of purchases, etc. ; (d) name of consigner, cutter, seller, buyer, owner,
etc. ; (c) weight of each parcel ; (d) number of stones of 10 carats and
upwards in each parcel ; (e) price paid or received ; {/) weight of a
single stone valued by buyer at over ;f 100. A copy of this register
must be forwarded every month to the Chief of PoUce, etc., and pro-
duced when required.
The operation of this Act is confined to " the district forming the late
Territory of Griqualand West " ; but a subsequent Act (No. 14 of
1885), extends its operation (with slight modification) to the whole of
the Cape Colony.
23. The Transvaal Gold Laws.
By the law of 1872, the right to all minerals and precious stones is
declared to be vested in the State. This and subsequent enactments
were codified in 1885 by the " Consolidated Gold Law,"
The President with the consent of the Executive Council is em-
powered to declare both Government and private lands to be "public
diggings " ; and further provisions secure an equitable distribution of
the prospective mineral wealth between the government, the owner (if
private land), the prospector or discoverer, and tlie public.
The owner is entitled to (i) a 7nijnpaclit or mining lease over not
more than one-tenth of the " farm" or estate ; (2) " owner's claims" in
proportion to the extent of the farm but not exceeding ten in number,
and certain " preferent claims " for his nominees ; (3) one-half of the
proceeds of diggers' or prospectors' licences, and three-fourths of the
"stand" (or building) licences. The mijnpacht is granted for not less
than five, nor more than twenty years, and is renewable.
The prospector or discoverer is entitled to six claims free of licence
so long as they remain registered in his name.
The Government provides officials for the administration of justice
and the collection of licence fees and other revenue. The rent on the
NOTES 283
area covered by the mijnpacht is fixed at los. per morgen (two acres).
Prospectors' licences are issued at 5s. per month, and entitle the
licensees to hold and examine claims. Diggers' licences are issued
at 15s. or 20s. (with machinery). The Government also takes one-
fourth of the "stand " licences.
In extent the claims measure: — (l) 30 x 30 Dutch feet (30 Dutch
are equal to 31 English feet) for precious stones; (2) 150 x 150 for
alluvial mining ; (3) 150 on the strike x 400 on the dip for quartz mining.
Only Europeans can hold claims, and each claim must be pegged off
and registered in the name of a separate person.
The Transvaal claim rights are identical with those of the Spanish
" custom " in the Americas. The claim holder is only entitled to work
minerals within the limits of the surface boundary carried vertically
downwards. He cannot follow the reef in all its "dips, spurs, and
angles," as is the case in the United States. In consequence of this
limitation claims have been secured on the Randt for more than a mile
southwards across the dips ; and it is combinations of these claims
which constitute the properties of the "deep-level" Companies.
24. The Chemical Processes in use on the Randt.
Chlorination. The concentrates obtained by the vanner from the
pyritic ore are (i) roasted to rid them of sulphur, (2) charged into vats
and permeated by chlorine gas for sixty hours or a sufficient period for
the gold to combine with the chlorine. The chloride of gold thus
formed is (3) dissolved by the introduction of water, and, after the
solution has been freed from sand and iron oxides, it is run into pre-
cipitating vats, and the gold which it contains is (4) precipitated by
sulphate of iron. These precipitates are (5) collected and smelted into
bars of almost pure gold. By this process 95 per cent, of the gold is
recovered from the concentrates, an amount which represents 9 '5 of
the total recovery of 90 per cent, obtained by all processes from the
pyritic ore.
Cyaniding. The tailings left by the vanners are charged into vats
where the gold is (l) dissolved out of the mass by successive solutions
of cyanide of potassium. These auriferous solutions are carried into
precipitating boxes, and the gold which they contain is (2) precipitated
by the medium of zinc scrap. By this process 70 per cent, of the gold
in the tailings is recovered, or 21 per cent, of the total extraction by all
processes.
25. Extract from Mr Hamilton Smith's article in Times, February
19, 1895.
"In the report of 1892 I estimated for the length of 11 miles the
average thickness of the ore to be worked was S ft. ; I should now
estimate it to be 6 ft., but I find in many mines that a good deal of
poorer ore has been left standing, so that the average yield from this
thickness of 6 fl., when it is all mined, will be less than the 13 dwt.
284 SOUTH AFRICA
before given. My opinion, though, as given in 1S92 of the quantity of
gold to be extracted remains unchanged, the greater thickness compen-
sating for the smaller yield per ton. In 1894 the value of the Randt
gold bullion was ;if7, 000,000, and this without any increase from the
new deep-level mines ; these latter will become fairly productive in
1897, so for that year a product of fully ;i{^i 0,000, 000 can be fairly
expected. Judging from present appearances, the juaximum product of
the Randt will be reached about the end of this century, when it will
probably exceed ;^i 2, 500,000 per annum. In addition to the yield
which may be expected from the main reef series, I think, in a few years
a considerable quantity of gold will be produced from other reefs,
especially from what is called the "black reef." This reef, with
perhaps one exception, thus far appears to be what in mining parlance
is called "spotted," the ore varying greatly in value in the distance of a
few feet. Very likely more money will be lost than made in working
this deposit, but the gold from it may in time add appreciably to the
bullion output of the district.
From the foregoing statement it is evident that the chances are far
greater now than they were in 1892, of my conjectures of that date
being realised, and to-day nearly every one conversant with the Randt
considers them as being considerably under the mark. The Randt for
1894 with its product of ;i^7, 000,000 stands third in the world, the
United States still remaining first with its greatly increased output of
over ;[f9,ooo,ooo, and Australasia (Australia, New Zealand, and
Tasmania) being probably second with a product of about ;i^8,ooo,ooo.
In 1849 the world's product of gold was about ;i^6,ooo,ooo, which in-
creased to something over ;^30,ooo,ooo in 1853, owing to the discovery
and working of the rich placers of California and Australia ; from 1853
the yield steadily declined until in 1S83 it had fallen to less than
;^20,ooo,ooo. Since 1887 the yield has advanced by leaps and bounds,
the increase being chiefly due to the new discoveries in South Africa,
until for 1894 the product has most probably amounted to fully 8,600,000
ounces of fine gold, worth over ;f 36, 500,000, an output certainly much
greater than that for any previous year in the history of the world. In
1853 it was evident that the great yield from both California and
Australia would be short-lived, whereas the probabilities now are that
this great product of ^^36, 500,000 will be fully maintained for quite a
number of years to come ; and yet, in spite of this fact and this belief,
the prices of commodities generally in use, such as wheat, cotton, wool,
sugar, iron, copper, &c. , are now lower than they have been for the
past hundred years. It has been generally accepted that one of the
principal causes of the rise in the price of standard articles from 1849 to
i860 was due to the influx of gold from California and Australia. Will
the same rise in values measured by the ounce of gold take place in the
coming five years ? This is a question of vast importance to all of us,
from the richest capitalist to the poorest labourer. I see that at least
one authority of position seems to be of the opinion that the probable
rise in prices due to this great flood of gold will have the effect of so in-
NOTES 285
creasing the cost of mining and reduction that many mines in the Randt
will be compelled to suspend work. This, I think, is an altogether
erroneous view, for should general prices recover to their level of ten or
fifteen years ago, this additional cost would be fully compensated for by
the increased economies which year by year will be carried into effect in
operating the Randt mines ; so, unless a mountain of gold should be
discovered somewhere or other, the Randt will in every probability
continue to increase its yield for at least five or six years to come."
26. Equality of Natives.
Baron von Hiibner says : —
" Experience has shown the impossibility in the lon£^ run of governing
colonies of mixed population, where the blacks form the large majority,
by means of a responsible or Parliamentary Government. Thus Jamaica
has asked, on its own initiative, to be made a Crown Colony. Natal,
on the representation of Lord Wolseley, did the same. Cape Colony,
I have been told confidentially by politicians in Capetown, will be
obliged sooner or later to follow suit." ("Through the British
Empire," vol. i. p. 146.)
Against this, Sir Hercules Robinson says : —
" Responsible Government . . . has been a complete success not-
withstanding that the natives within the represented districts exceed
the Europeans in the proportion probably of nearly two to one. Where
responsible Government at the Cape has broken down has been in the
attempt to govern extra-colonial native territories, such as Basutoland
and the Transkei." (Ti??ies, March 4, 1884.)
27. The Glen Grey Act (August 1894).
The objects of the Act, as disclosed by the full title, are " to provide
for the disposal of lands and for the administration of local affairs with-
in the district of Glen Grey and other proclaimed districts."
Glen Grey (with reservations of lands owned by individuals or public
bodies, etc.) is to be divided into locations, and the locations into
allotments of four morgen (8 acres), to be held on perpetual quit-rent
(15s.) tenure by individual natives.
Each location, with its respective commonage, is to be placed under
the control of three persons, being resident holders of land within the
location, " who shall be appointed by the Governor after the considera-
tion of the wishes and recommendations of the resident holders of land
in the location," and hold office for one year. These "Location
Boards " can be invested with the powers, etc., of " Village Boards of
Management " by the Governor's regulations. (Part I. §§ 2-16. )
The succession to the allotment is regulated by the provisions of
§§ 24 and 25 : — " The allotment and other immovable property of every
registered holder shall' not be capable of being devised by will, but
upon his or her decease shall devolve upon and be claimable according
2 86 SOUTH AFRICA
to the rule of primogeniture by one male person to be called the heir,"
and to be determined by the table given in § 24.
The Labour tax is treated in Part IV. §§ 33-36 : — " Every male
native residing in the district, exclusive of natives in possession of
lands under ordinary quit-rent titles, or in freehold, who, in the judg-
ment of the Resident Magistrate, is fit for and capable of labour, shall
pay in to the public revenue a tax of ten shillings per annum." But a
native is excepted, (i) for a year, if he has been in service beyond the
district for at least three months of the preceding twelve months ; (2)
from any further payment, if he has been in service for a total period,
consecutive or otherwise, of not less than three years. Also the
Resident Magistrate may exempt a native for one year on certain
grounds (among them employment within the district for three months).
The powers, etc., of the District Councib are contained in Part V.
§§ 37-59 : — These councils are to consist of twelve members, of whom
six are appointed by the Governor and six are selected by the members
of the Location Boards. The Resident Magistrate is an additional
member of the Council ex-officio, and, when present, is to act as
chairman. The Council is empowered to levy a rate not exceeding
2d. in the pound on the rateable property within the district, and a rate
of not less than 5s. on every adult male native, excepting natives in
possession of lands under ordinary quit-rent title or in freehold.
Liquor licences are dealt with in Part VI. §§ 60-64 • — The principle
of local option is adopted, and no new licences are to be granted by the
Licencing Court, except after a resolution has been passed by a
majority of the members of the District Council approving of the issue
of the licence. Old licences may be renewed, except they are con-
demned by a two-thirds majority of the District Council {§ 63).
28. The Conquest of Mashonaland by the Matabele Zulus.
" Some fifty years ago this fine country must have been thickly in-
habited, as almost every valley has, at one time or another, been under
cultivation. The sites of villages are also very numerous, though now
only marked by a few deep pits from which the natives obtained the
clay used by them for plastering their huts and making their cooking
pots ; and also the presence usually of a cluster of huge acacia-trees,
which grow to a far greater size on the sites of old villages than any-
where else. On the summit of every hill may be found the walls, in
more or less perfect preservation, of what, I think, must have been
cattle kraals. These walls are very neatly built of squared stones,
nicely fitted together, but uncemented with any kind of mortar. The
peaceful people inhabiting this part of Africa must then have been in
the zenith of their prosperity. Herds of their small but beautiful cattle
lowed in every valley, and their rich and fertile country doubtless
afforded them an abundance of vegetable food. About 1840, however,
the Matabele Zulus, under their warlike chief, Unziligazi, settled in
the country which they now inhabit, and very soon bands of these
ferocious and bloodthirsty savages overran the peaceful vales of the
NOTES
287
Mashuna country in every direction. The poor Mashunas, unskilled in
war, and living, moreover, in small communities scattered all over the
country, without any central government, fell an easy prey before the
fierce invaders, and very soon every stream in their country ran red
with their blood, whilst vultures and hyanas feasted undisturbed
amidst the ruins of their devastated homes. Their cattle, sheep, and
goats were driven off by their conquerors, and their children, when old
enough to walk and not above ten or twelve years of age, were taken
for slaves ; the little children too young to walk were, of course, killed
together with their mothers. In a very few years there were no more
Mashunas left in the open country, the remnant that had escaped
massacre having fled into the mountainous districts to the south and
east of their former dwellings, where they still live. Thus, in a short
time an immense extent of fertile country that had, perhaps, for ages
past supported a large and thriving community, was again given back
to nature ; and so it remains to the present day — an utterly uninhabited
country, roamed over at will by herds of elands and other antelopes."
(Selous : "Travel and Adventure in Africa," pp. 80-81.)
29. Transvaal Legislation.
The Enactments of the Raad
following : —
Name of Measure.
Revision of the Grond-
wet, or Constitution.
during the year 1896 include the
New Press Law.
Aliens' Expulsion Law.
Education Law.
Purpose or Effect.
Three months' notice of new law (by
publication in the Staats Courant) no longer
necessary.
President can prohibit, entirely, or tem-
porarily, dissemination of publications
printed outside the Republic ; political
articles must bear name of writer, and
writer, editor, printer, publisher and distri-
butors are rendered liable to severe penal-
ties if the matter is held to be dangerous
to the interests of the Republic.
Any stranger dangerous to public peace
and order may be expelled by order of the
President within 14 days. Burghers can
appeal to the High Court ; but Uitlanders
have no such right, being liable to six
months' imprisonment if they refuse to obey
(and then to be forcibly expelled).
Gives power to Superintendent of Edu-
cation (Dr Mansvelt, a Hollander) to
provide for education of non-Dutch speak-
ing children whose parents reside on the
gold-fields. This law leaves the require-
ments of the Uitlanders entirely in the
SOUTH AFRICA
The Johannesburg
Municipality Law.
The Liquor Law.
The Aliens' Admission
Law.
Name of Measure. Purpose or Effect.
hands of a Government official who is
notoriously in favour of the policy of mak-
ing the Uitlanders learn to speak Dutch.
Out of ^103,000 set apart for education
for current year, ;i^8oo only is assigned for
English schools. (See next note.)
The Mayor is to be appointed by the
Government ; one half of the Members of
the Municipal Council are to be elected by
the burghers, and the remaining half by the
inhabitants. In other words the control is
given to the very small number of Boers
and Hollanders (chiefly officials) resident in
the town.
The sale of intoxicating drinks to natives
on the gold-fields is prohibited. If this law
is enforced its effect will be most beneficial.
After January ist, 1897, all immigrants
must be furnished with either (i) a regular
passport, which must show that they have
sufficient means to support themselves ; or
(2) evidence of identity and capacity to
support themselves, and obtain from a Field
Cornet, or other officer of the Republic, a
travelling and residing passport. This latter
is to be renewed every three months. But
if the holder declares his intention to settle
in the Republic, it need only be renewed
every twelve months.
30. The Population of Johannesburg.
An official census was taken under the authority of the Sanitary
Board between July 15th and Oct. 21st, 1896. It shows the total
population living within a three-mile radius of the Market-square to
number 102,078 persons. Of these 50,907 are Europeans, 42,533
Natives, 4,807 Asiatics, 952 Malays, and the remaining 2,879 ^"^^
returned as of mixed and other races.
The origin of the Europeans is shown to be as follows : —
Place of Birth.
United Kingdom, . 16,265.
Cape Colony . . 15,162.
Transvaal, . . 6,205.
Russia, . . . 3>335-
Germany, . , 2,262.
Holland, . . 819.
France, . . . 402.
NOTES 289
With additions fVom Sweden and Norway, Italy, Switzerland and
other countries.
The political states of the 25,058 European males over 16 years of
age is as follows : —
1,039 are burghers, or citizens of the Republic.
516 are naturalised subjects.
23,503 have no vote.
The educational position appears from the fact that out of 13,391
European children under 15 years of age, 6,992 are unable to read or
write, and are not undergoing instruction of any kind.
The relation of the Sexes is shown by the fact that there are 32,387
European Males and 18,520 European females. And of 31,981 married
persons, 22,968 are males and 9,013 females.
31. The Rinderpest.
The Zambesi cattle fever, or rinderpest, broke out at Buluwayo on
March 5th, 1896. By High Commissioner's proclamation of March 9th,
the removal of cattle without permission was forbidden, and powers
were given to the Cattle Inspector to isolate and destroy affected cattle,
etc. Notwithstanding the enforcement of the regulations the disease
made its way to Palapye, in the Bechuanaland Protectorate ; and on
March nth, the High Commissioner advised the Transvaal Govern-
ment of the fact. President Kriiger at once forbade the importation of
cattle from Rhodesia and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Every effort
was made by Mr Newton, the Resident Commissioner at Mafeking to
stay the progress of the disease in the Protectorate. On May 9th the
Treasury sanctioned the expenditure of ^"50,000 by the Imperial
authorities for the purpose of compensating the owners of sound cattle
which were slaughtered, and for the distribution of food amongst the
natives and the transport riders who were reduced to destitution by the
loss of their cattle.
The Cape Government have attempted to stay the disease by con-
structing a fence across the Continent following the line of the Orange
River, and guarding the fence by police. But according to a statement
made by Mr F. R. Thompson, late Special Rinderpest Commissioner,
to Renter's Agency (published Nov. 19th, 1896) this measure has been
undertaken too late.
" Now, after a lapse of six weeks, the fencing of the Orange River
is being commenced, but as the rinderpest jumps sixty miles a day, it
is too late."
"The Transvaal war, native rebellions, and the Jameson raid sink
into insignificance compared with the present situation, which is un-
doubtedly the gravest that a British colony has ever had to face. The
rinderpest will run through the whole of Cape Colony and Natal, and not
I per cent, of the cattle in Cape Colony can be saved. I am persuaded
that the pest will not stop until it reaches the dock gates at Cape Town.
T
2 90 SOUTH AFRICA
To stop its course is now a matter of impossibility, and if the policy of
killing cattle and compensating is pursued with the Colonial natives as
in the north, my long experience of South Africa and its natives leads
me to the conviction that we shall have to face one of the biggest wars
Africa has ever experienced. It will be found that Zulus, Griquas, and
Basutos will join hands, and, as it is a well-known fact that we could
not beat the Basutos, what could be done in the case of such a combina-
tion as I have indicated ?
" Rinderpest is now in the old Cape Colony, at Bethulie, and all
over the Free State. Natal is at present unaffected, but at Herschell
— the great native centre which bounds the Free State — its presence
may be expected at any hour."
Dr Otto Henning's account of the symptoms of the disease is as
follows : —
This is a feverish disease of typical rapid course which spreads by
contagion, and chiefly attacks cattle. Sheep, goats, and game are
less liable ; human beings, horses, mules and donkeys do not get it.
A healthy animal which has come into contact with a sick one
usually shows the first symptoms of the disease seven days after ;
occasionally the period is considerably longer. General symptoms are
fever, weariness, uneasiness, rough coat, failing appetite, increase of
pulse and breathing, convulsive trembling of skin, rapid emaciation, and
decline of strength.
Special symptoms. — One of the first and most constant is a frequent
short cough, and thin slimy, afterwards matter}' discharge from the
inflamed and swollen mucous membrane of the nose, eyes and even
mouth. On the 3rd (rarely so soon as the 2nd) day, diarrhoea sets in.
Sometimes small ulcers and sores are visible on the mucous membrane
of the lips, gums and cheeks, and on those parts of the skin which can
be licked.
Diseased animals rarely succumb earlier or later than from the 4th to
the 7th day after the first symptoms have become manifest.
Experience has always shown that medical treatment is of no avail,
but merely tends to spread the malady. It is therefore wisest and
cheapest to destroy all animals affected at the earliest possible moment
and all carcases, unskinned and complete, should be burnt carefully or
deeply buried.
The disease does not originate through influences such as cold and
fog, dew or rain, or bad food and water, but is solely due to a vege-
table parasite, which is able to spread easily and rapidly. [C — 8141.]
As a last resource, the Cape Government have summoned Dr Koch,
the German scientist, to South Africa, and have commissioned him to
investigate the disease with a view of discovering a possible remedy.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY.
B.C. 1700. Land of Punt (S.-E. Africa) conquered by the Egyptians.
1000. Solomon's Expedition to the land of Ophir (S.-E. Africa).
600. Voyage of Phoenician seamen (from Red Sea) round Africa.
A.D. 35. Sabaean King Kharabit is in possession of the E. coast of
Africa.
Portuguese Period.
i486. Discovery of the Cape (Cabo Tormentoso) by Bartholomew Diaz.
1497. Vasco da Gama sails to India by the Cape.
1505. Alvarez de Cahal occupies Sofala (East Coast).
1580. Sir Francis Drake passes the Cape on his (return) voyage round
the world.
Dutch Period.
1602 Netherlands East India Company chartered.
1 648. Wreck of the Haarlem in Table Bay.
1652. Arrival of expedition under Van Riebeck.
Government by the Dutch East India Company.
1657. Nine of the Company's servants settled as " free burghers " at
Rondebosch.
1679. Simon Van der Stell appointed Commander.
Huguenot emigration.
1689.
1709. The use of French in official communications forbidden.
1714. Returns show Capetown has 300 houses, and that whole popula-
tion of settlement = free burghers, 647 men, 341 women, ,900
children, employing 93 men servants, and owning 1178 male,
240 female slaves.
1779. The Franco-Dutch settlers send representatives to Holland pray
ing for reforms.
1783. Birth of Tshaka.
292 SOUTH AFRICA
1786. Fish River declared limit of colony, and magistracy established
at Graaf-Reinet.
1795. British Force (under Admiral Elphinstone and General Craig)
take possession of the Cape.
1S03. Restoration of the Cape to the Dutch after the Treaty of Amiens.
1806. Surrender of the Cape by General Janssens to Sir David Baird.
Period of British Kule.
1806. Population of Colony = 73,663, of whom 26,720 were of European
descent ; exports ^60,000, imports ;if 100,000.
1807. Earl of Caledon appointed Governor — postal communication,
circuit courts, regulations for Hottentots.
1S12. Sir John Cradock : " loan-leases " converted into perpetual quit-
rent properties — public schools established in country districts.
I. Kafir War (1811-12): Kafirs driven back to original Dutch
frontier (the Fish River). Foundation of Grahamstown.
1814. Lord Charles Somerset.
1815. The Cape formally ceded to England by Holland. (The agree-
ment passed the Cape and other possessions (notably Ceylon)
to the British Government in return for Java and a sum of
money.)
o {II. Kafir War : Defence of Grahamstown by Wiltshire — bound-
'„''■ \ ary advanced to Chumie and Keiskamma Rivers — Mission-
"■ ' aries sent to Gaika tribe.
1820. Albany Settlement : arrival of 5000 British emigrants at Algoa
Bay. Foundation of Port Elizabeth.
1826. General Bourke : ordinance declaring free coloured men equal in
law with the whites.
Report of Royal Commission : establishment of Executive Coun-
cil, Supreme Court, Resident Magistrates (in place of Land-
drosts). Schools, &c. (conversion of Dutch into English Colony).
English ordered to be used as official language.
1833. Abolition Act.
1834. Sir Benjamin D'' Urban : Slave emancipation carried out.
o rill. Kafir War: invasion of Colony by Kafirs — boundary
s c » advanced to Kei River : Lord Glenelg's despatch ordering
• 35' I evacuation of new territory, disafl'ection of "Boer" population.
jj-^o' ]■ Exodus of the "emigrant farmers."
1837. Defeat of Moselekatse by Hendrik Potgieter
1835. Massacre of Retiefs party by l^ingan.
Pretorius (Andries) is Commandant-General of Boers — defeat of
Dingan (Dec. 10).
1S43. British government established in Natal.
184O. V IV. Kafir War (War of the Axe) : war with the Gaikas — ter-
1^48. / minated by Sir Harry Smith.
1I547. Sir Henry Pottin^er first Governor and High Commissioner
HISTORICAL SUMMARY 293
1848. Sir Henry Smith : Declaration of British Sovereignty up to the
Vaal River and the Drakensberg mountains.
1849. Convict agitation in Cape Colony.
^fSi- I V. Kafir War. Moshesh, Basuto chief, submits,
1853-/
1852. Sand River Convention. Boers beyond the Vaal are absolved
from their allegiance, and Pretorius is pardoned.
{Boers of Orange River Sovereignty revolt. Imperial Govern-
ment decide upon a policy of non-interference — withdraw
troops — acknowledge Orange Free State by convention of
Bloemfontein.
1853. Representative Government (elective Council and Assembly)
granted to Cape Colony.
1854. Sir George Grey : New Kafir Policy.
1857. Settlement of Anglo-German legion (2000) on the Buffalo River
(East London founded).
1858. Agricultural German immigration (2000).
1862. Sir Philip VVodehouse : policy of retrenchment insisted upon by
the Imperial Government.
1863. First line of railway opened — public works policy initiated.
1865. British Kaffraria incorporated into the colony.
1869. Sir Henry Barkly : authorised to bring in Responsible Govern-
ment. Discovery of diamonds.
1 87 1. Proclamation of British authority over the diamond fields.
1872. New constitution (Responsible Government) received royal assent:
Sir John Molteno first Premier.
1873. Colony divided into legislative districts.
1874. Mr Froude's mission in favour of confederation scheme of Lord
Carnarvon.
1877. Sir Bartle Frere : authorised to carry out confederation of South
African states as Governor of the Cape Colony and High
Commissioner in South Africa (April).
Annexation of the Transvaal (April 12th).
1877-8. Subjugation of Kreli and Sandele.
1879. The Zulu War.
Lord Wolseley, High Commissioner for South-East Africa
(June). Administrator of Transvaal.
1880. June 29. Federation Proposals defeated in Cape Parliament.
Aug. I. Recall of Sir Bartle Frere.
Sir Hercules Robinson succeeds.
Boers revolt under Triumvirate Kruger, Joubert, and Pretorius
(Dec. 16).
1881. Convention of Pretoria (independence of South African Republic
(Transvaal) recognised. Suzerain rights of British Govern-
ment maintained).
1883. Imperial Government take over Basutoland.
1884. Convention of London (modification of Convention of Pretoria:
Bechuanaland Protectorate (Feb. 27).
2 94 SOUTH AFRICA
1885. Sir Charles Warren's Expedition, Extension of Protectorate
and formation of Crown Colony.
1886. Discovery of Gold at Witwatersrandt (Johannesburg).
1887. Zululand taken over by Imperial Government.
1888. Treaty with Lobengula and mineral concessions obtained in
Mashonaland.
1889. Sir Henry Loch succeeds.
1889. Customs Union Convention (first step towards federation of South
Africa).
Charter granted to British South Africa Company.
1890. Cecil Rhodes, Prime Minister. Pioneer Expedition to Salisbur}'.
1 89 1. Anglo- Portuguese Convention.
1893. Matabele War.
1894. Matabele Settlement.
Glen Grey Act.
B.S.A. Coy. undertake administration of country north of
Zambesi (Nov. 4).
Swazi Convention (Dec. 10).
1895. Sir Herades Kohinson re-appointed.
Annexation of Pondoland.
1895.
Dec. 26. Manifesto of Transvaal National Union issued at Johannes-
burg.
,, 29. Dr Jameson's force starts.
1896.
Jan. 2. Surrender of Dr Jameson's force to the Boers.
,, ,, Sir Hercules Robinson leaves Capetown for Pretoria.
,, 6. Mr Rhodes resigns Premiership of the Cape Colony.
March 5. Rinderpest appears at Buluwayo.
,, 20. Outbreak of Native insurrection in Rhodesia.
April 28. Sentence on Reformers at Pretoria.
,, ,, Lord Grey arrives at Buluwayo.
June 2. General Carrington arrives at Buluwayo.
July 17. Cape Committee report on the Raid.
,, 29. Sentence passed on Dr Jameson, Sir John Willoughby, and
others.
,, 30. South Africa Committee ordered.
Aug. 21. Mr Rhodes meets rebel chiefs in Matoppos.
Oct. 18. Lord Grey addresses letter to Secretary of the Chartered
Company,
STATISTICAL APPENDIX
295
X
Q
W
Ph
Ph
<
<
o
►— t
H
H
<
H
C/3
s?
vo ►-< w
10 Woo CO Tt
^ "m r^ g -<"
"3
§.
296 SOUTH AFRICA
II. Maritime Trade of United Eangdom in 1889.
(Based upon Sir Rawson Rawson's "Analysis.")
Imports.
per cent.
Food. . . . 4i7l_iti,s ;^i78,ooo,ooo
Raw Materials (with Ores) 42-5/ ^ 181,400,000
Manufactured and Miscel-
laneous . . , 1 5 '8 67,800,000
Total, . ;^427, 200,000
Exports.
Imports ^^-exported .... ;^66, 700,000
per cent.
[■Textiles . 45 ^
Iron and Steel |
British Produce J Manufactures, 25 *- = gths.
iintish l-roduce -j q^-^^^ Manufac- |
I factures . 15 J
I Raw Materials 15 248,900,000
Total . ;i^3i5,6oo,ooo
Grand Total . . ;,f742, 800,000.
Partial Analysis of some hnports.
G^ain . ;^52, 200,000 I2'2 p.c. of total Imports.
Of which
18,200,000 ( = ^rd.) is from United States.
14,000,000 is from Russia, India,
Canada, Australia, &c.
Cotton . ;^45, 800,000 107 p.c. of total Imports.
Of which
33,600,000 (=§rds.) is from United States.
5,000,000 is from India.
Wool . . ;^29,7oo,ooo 7 p.c. of total Imports.
Of which
25,400,000 ( = 6ths) is from Australasia.
3,000,000 (=^th) is from South Africa.
Note. — Value is only a partial measure. Bulk of goods is largely
increasing. Price of goods is steadily going down.
f Imports . . . ;i^4o8,50o,ooo
For 1894, returns are \ British Exports . 216,100,000
(^ Re-Exports , . 57,900,000
True Total , . ^682,666,441
STATISTICAL APPENDIX
297
III. South African Exports in 1893.
Minerals
;i{^IO,00O,O0O
Gold . . . ;^5, 500,000
Diamonds . . . 4,000,000
Copper . . . 200,000
Pastoral
4,000,000
Wool . . . 2,400,000
Ostrich Feathers . 500,000
Hides . . . 500,000
Hair (Angora) . , 500,000
Wine
18,964
Sugar
95,943
e Total / ^y Durban . ;^i,242,i69 \
e oiai -y gy ^^p^ p^^jg 1 3, 1 56, 589 J
;^I4,398,7S8
Exports from Cape Colony only in 1892.
Wool
^^2,029,093
Ostrich Feathers
517,009
Hides ....
478,379
Copper ore ....
253,681
Hair (Angora)
373.810
Wine
18,645
Grain, &c
7,589
Diamonds ....
3,906,992
(From States)
Jiangs Yearbook, 1894.)
IV. Gold-producing Count
pies.
£ value in 1894.
North America
9,000,000
Australasia .....
8,000,000
Transvaal
7,000,000
Russia (1892)
4,000,000
World's Output
35,000,000
(Based on Mr
Hami
Iton Smith's estimate.)
V, "Wheat production of the Cape Colony compared with
that of other Countries.
Bushels in 1892.
Cape Colony 3,890,898
48,182,295
Canada
Australasia
The United Kingdom
France
The United States .
41,161,057
60,775,000
327,000,000
315,949,000
298
SOUTH AFRICA
Wheat Production of the World.
Europe . .
Asia
Africa .
Australasia
S. America .
N. America .
1893.
Bushels.
. 1,435,666,000
345,896,000
35,514,000
41,161,000
81,644,000
447,479,000
• 2,387,360,000
1892.
Bushels.
1,406,933,000
289,944,000
34,464,000
35,963,000
51,262,000
574,131,000
Total
2,391,697,000
(From Statistics of American Department of Agriculture.)
VI. 'Wool-exporting Countries.
£ value in 1893.
Australasia 25,000,000
South Africa 2,400,000
Russia 1,000,000
VII. Wine exports of the Cape Colony and Victoria in 1892.
Gallons. £
Victoria . . . 273,253 63,235
Cape Colony . . 78,836 17.964
Fertility of Vineyards in various Countries, as estimated
by Baron von Babo.
Germany .
France
Spain
United States
Australia .
Cape Colony—
>>
(From Official Handbook to the Cape Colony, ^'c, p. 271.)
24
lectolitres per hectare
i8i
Coast Districts
17
I4i
86^
Inland ,,
173
STATISTICAL APPENDIX
299
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FULL TEXT OF CONVENTION OF
LONDON, 1884.
A Convention between Her Majesty the Queen of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and the
South African Republic,
Whereas the Government of the Transvaal State, through its
Delegates, consisting of Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, President
of the said State, Stephanus Jacobus Du Toit, Superintendent of
Education, and Nicholas Jacobus Smit, a member of the Volksraad,
have represented that the Convention signed at Pretoria on the 3rd day
of August 1881, and ratified by the Volksraad of the said State on the
25th October 1881, contains certain provisions which are inconvenient,
and imposes burdens and obligations from which the said State is
desirous to be relieved, and that the south-western boundaries fixed by
the said Convention should be amended, with a view to promote the
peace and good order of the said State, and of the countries adjacent
thereto ; and whereas Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, has been pleased to take the said repre-
sentations into consideration : Now, therefore. Her Majesty has been
pleased to direct, and it is hereby declared, that the following articles
of a new Convention, signed on behalf of Her Majesty by Her Majesty's
High Commissioner in South Africa, the Right Honourable Sir
Hercules George Robert Robinson, Knight Grand Cross of the Most
Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Governor of
the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope, and on behalf of the Transvaal
State (which shall hereinafter be called the South African Republic) by
the above-named Delegates, Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger,
Stephanus Jacobus Du Toit, and Nicholas Jacobus Smit, shall, when
ratified by the Volksraad of the South African Republic, be substituted
for the articles embodied in the Convention of 3rd August 1881 ; which
latter, pending such ratification, shall continue in full force and effect.
300
CONVENTION OF LONDON, 1884 301
Article I.
The territory of the South African Republic will embrace the land
lying between the following boundaries, to wit : —
Beginning from the point where the north-eastern boundary line of
Griqualand West meets the Vaal River, up the course of the Vaal
River to the point of junction with it of the Klip River ; thence up the
course of Klip River to the point of junction with it of the stream called
Gansvlei ; thence up the Gansvlei stream to its source in the Drakens-
berg ; thence to a beacon in the boundaiy of Natal, situated immedi-
ately opposite and close to the source of the Gansvlei stream ; thence
in a north-easterly direction along the ridge of the Drakensberg,
dividing the waters flowing into the Gansvlei stream from the waters
flowing into the sources of the Buffalo, to a beacon on a point where
this mountain ceases to be a continuous chain ; thence to a beacon on
a plain to the north-east of the last described beacon ; thence to the
nearest source of a small stream called "Division Stream;" thence
down this division stream, which forms the southern boundary of the
farm Sandfontein, the property of Messrs Meek, to its junction with the
Coldstream ; thence down the Coldstream to its junction with the
Buffalo or Umzinayti River ; thence down the coast of the Buffalo
River to the junction with it of the Blood River ; thence up the course
of the Blood River to the junction with it of Lyn Spruit or Dudusi ;
thence up the Dudusi to its source; thence 80 yards to Bea. I.,
situated on a spur of the N'Qaba-Ka hawana Mountains ; thence 80
yards to the N'Sonto River ; thence down the N'Sonto River to its
junction with the White Umvulozi River ; thence up the White
Umvulozi River to a white rock where it rises ; thence 800 yards to
Kambula Hill (Bea. II.) ; thence to the source of the Pemvana River,
where the road from Kambula Camp to Burgers' Lager crosses ; thence
down the Pemvana River to its junction with the Bivana River ; thence
down the Bivana River to its junction with the Pongolo River ; thence
down the Pongolo River to where it passes through the Libombo
Range ; thence along the summits of the Libombo Range to the
northern point of the N'Yawos Hill in that range (Bea. XVI.) ; thence
to the northern peak of the Inkwakweni Hills (Bea. XV.) ; thence to
Sefunda, a rocky knoll detached from and to the north-east end of the
White Koppies, and to the south of the Musana River (Bea. XIV.) ;
thence to a point on the slope near the crest of Matanjeni, which is the
name given to the south-eastern portion of the Mahamba Hills (Bea.
XHI.) ; thence to the N'gwangwana, a double-pointed hill (one point
is bare, the other wooded, the beacon being on the former), on the left
bank of the Assegai River and upstream of Dadusa Spruit (Bea. XII.) ;
thence to the southern point of Bendita, a rocky knoll in a plain
between the Little Hlozane and Assegai Rivers (Bea. XI.) ; thence to
the highest point of Suluka Hill, round the eastern slopes of which
flows the Little Hlozane, also called Ludaka or Mudspruit (Bea. X.) ;
thence to the beacon known as "Viljoen's," or N'Duko Hill ; thence
302 FULL TEXT OF
to a point north-east of Derby House, known as Magwazidili's Beacon ;
thence to the Igaba, a small knoll on the Ungwempisi River, also
called "Joubert's Beacon," and known to the natives as " Piet's
Beacon" (Bea. IX.); thence to the highest point of the N'Dhlovud-
walili or Houtbosch, a hill on the northern bank of the Umqwempisi
River (Bea. VIII.) ; thence to a beacon on the only flat-topped rock,
about lo feet high and about 30 yards in circumference at its base,
situated on the south side of the Lamsamane range of hills, and over-
looking the valley of the great Usuto River ; this rock being 45 yards
north of the road from Camden and Lake Banagher to the forests on
the Usuto River (sometimes called Sandhlanas Beacon) (Bea. VII.);
thence to the Gulungwana or Ibubulundi, four smooth bare hills, the
highest in that neighbourhood, situated to the south of the Umtuli
River (Bea. VI.) ; thence to a flat-topped rock, 8 feet high, on the
crest of the Busuku, a low rocky range south-west of the Impulazi
River (Bea. V.); thence to a low bare hill on the north-east of and
overlooking the Impulazi River to the south of it being a tributary of
the Impulazi, with a considerable waterfall, and the road from the
river passing 200 yards to the north-west of the beacon (Bea. IV.);
thence to the highest point of the Mapumula range, the watershed of the
Little Usuto River on the north, and the Umpulazi River on the south,
the hill the top of which is a baie rock, falling abruptly towards the
Little Usuto (Bea. III.) ; thence to the western point of a double-
pointed rocky hill, precipitous on all sides, called Makwana, its top
being a bare rock (Bea. II.) ; thence to the top of a rugged hill of
considerable height falling abruptly to the Komati River, this hill being
the northern extremity of the Isilotwani range, and separated from the
highest peak of the range Inkomokazi (a sharp cone) by a deep neck
(Bea. I.). (On a ridge in the straight line between Beacons I. and II.
is an intermediate beacon. ) From Beacon I. the boundary nms to a
hill across the Komati River, and thence along the crest of the range
of hills known as the Makongwa, which runs north-east and south-west,
to Kamhlubana Peak ; thence in a straight line to Mananga, a point in
the Libombo range, and thence to the nearest point in the Portuguese
frontier on the Libombo range ; thence along the summits of the
Libombo range to the middle of the poort where the Komati River
passes through it, called the lowest Komati Poort ; thence in a north
by easterly direction to Pokioens Kop, situated on the north side of
the Olifant's River, where it passes through the ridges ; thence about
north norlh-west to the nearest point of Serra di Chicundo ; and thence
to the junction of the I'afori River with the Limpopo or Crocodile
River ; thence up the course of the Limpopo River to the point where
the Marique River falls into it. Thence up the course of the Marique
River to " Derde Poort," where it passes through a low range of hills,
called Sikwane, a beacon (No. 10) being erected on the spur of said
range near to, and westward of, the banks of the river ; thence, in a
straight line, through this beacon to a beacon (No. 9), erected on the
top of the same range, about 1700 yards distant from beacon No. lO;
CONVENTION OF LONDON, 1884 303
thence, in a straight line, to a beacon (No. 8) erected on the highest
point of an isolated hill, called Dikgagong, or " Wildebeest Kop,"
situated south-eastward of, and about 3^ miles distant from a high hill,
called Moripe ; thence, in a straight Hne, to a beacon (No. 7) erected
on the summit of an isolated hill or "koppie" forming the eastern
extremity of the range of hills called Moshweu, situated to the north-
ward of, and about two miles distant from, a large isolated hill called
Chukudu-Chochwa ; thence, in a straight line, to a beacon (No. 6)
erected on the summit of a hill forming part of the same range Mosh-
weu ; thence, in a straight line, to a beacon (No. 5) erected on the
summit of a pointed hill in the same range ; thence, in a straight line,
to a beacon (No. 4) erected on the summit of the western extremity
of the same range ; thence, in a straight line, to a beacon (No. 3)
erected on the summit of the northern extremity of a low, bushy
hill, or "Koppie," near to and eastward of the Notwane River;
thence, in a straight line, to the junction of the stream called
Metsi Mashwane with the Notwane River (No. 2); thence up the course
of the Notwane River to Sengoma, being the Poort where the river
passes through the Dwarsberg range ; thence, as described in the
Award given by Lieutenant-Governor Keate, dated October 17, 1871,
by Pitlanganyane (narrow place), Deboaganka or Schaapkuil, Sibatoul
(bare place), and Maclase, to Ramatlabama, a pool on a spruit north
of the Molopo River. From Ratmalabama the boundary shall run to
the summit of an isolated hill, called Leganka ; thence, in a straight
line, passing north-east of a Native Station, near " Buurman's Drift,"
on the Molopo River, to that point on the road from Mosiega to the
old drift where a road turns out through the Native Station to the new
drift below; thence to "Buurman's Old Drift;" thence in a straight
line, to a mai-ked and isolated clump of trees near to and north-west
of the dwelling-house of C. Austin, a tenant on the farm "Vleifontein,"
No. 117 ; thence, in a straight line, to the north-western corner beacon
of the farm " Mooimeisjesfontein," No. 30; thence, along the western
line of the said farm " Mooimeisjesfontein," and in prolongation there-
of, as far as the road leading from " Ludik's Drift," on the Molopo
River, past the homestead of "Mooimeisjesfontein," towards the Salt
Pans near Harts River ; thence, along the said road, crossing the
direct road from Polfontein to Sehuba, and until the direct road from
Polfontein to Lotlakane or Pietfontein is reached ; thence along the
southern edge of the last-named road towards Lotlakane, until the first
garden ground of that station is reached ; thence, in a south-westerly
direction, skirting Lotlakane, so as to leave it and all its garden ground
in native territory, until the road from Lotlakane to Kunana is reached ;
thence along the east side, and clear of that road towards Kunana,
until the garden grounds of that station are reached ; thence, skirting
Kunana, so as to include it and all its garden ground, but no more,
in the Transvaal, until the road from Kunana to Mamusa is reached ;
thence, along the eastern side and clear of the road towards Mamusa,
until a road turns out towards Taungs ; thence, along the eastern side
304 FULL TEXT OF
and clear of the road towards Taungs, till the line of the district known
as " Stellaland " is reached, about ii miles from Taungs ; thence, along
the line of the district Stellaland, to the Harts River about 24 miles
below Mamusa ; thence across Harts River, to the junction of the roads
from Monthe and Phokwane ; thence, along the western side and clear
of the nearest road towards " Koppie Enkel," an isolated hill about
36 miles from Mamusa, and about 18 miles north of Christiana, and
to the summit of the said hill ; thence, in a straight line, to that point
on the north-east boundary of Griqualand West as beaconed by Mr
Surveyor Ford, where two farms, registered as Nos. 72 and 75, do
meet, about midway between the Vaal and Harts Rivers, measured
along the said boundary of Griqualand West ; thence to the first
point where the north-east boundary of Griqualand West meets the
Vaal River.
Article II.
The Government of the South African Republic will strictly adhere
to the boundaries defined in the first Article of this Convention, and
will do its utmost to prevent any of its inhabitants from making any
encroachments upon lands beyond the said boundaries. The Govern-
ment of the South African Republic will appoint Commissioners upon
the eastern and western borders whose duty it will be strictly to guard
against irregularities and all trespassing over the boundaries. Her
Majesty's Government will, if necessary, appoint Commissioners
in the native territories outside the eastern and western borders
of the South African Republic to maintain order and prevent en-
croachments.
Her Majesty's Government and the Government of the South African
Republic will each appoint a person to proceed together to beacon off
the amended south-west boundary as described in Article I. of this
Convention ; and the President of the Orange Free State shall be re-
quested to appoint a referee to whom the said persons shall refer any
questions on which they may disagree respecting the interpretation of
the said Article, and the decision of such referee thereon shall be final.
The arrangement already made, under the terms of Article 19 of the
Convention of Pretoria of the 3rd August 1881, between the owners
of the farms Groolfontein and Valleifonlein on the one hand, and the
Barolong authorities on the other, by which a fair share of the water
supply of the said farms shall be allowed to flow undisturbed to the
said Barolongs, shall continue in force.
Article III.
If a British officer is appointed to reside at Pretoria or elsewhere
within the South African Republic to discharge functions analogous to
those of a Consular officer he will receive the protection and assistance
of the Republic.
CONVENTION OF LONDON, 1884 305
Article IV.
The South African Republic will conclude no treaty or engagement
with any State or nation other than the Orange Free State, nor with
any native tribe to the eastward or westward of the Republic, until the
same has been approved by Her Majesty the Queen.
Such approval shall be considered to have been granted if Her
Majesty's Government shall not, within six months after receiving a
copy of such treaty (which shall be delivered to them immediately upon
its completion), have notified that the conclusion of such treaty is in
conflict with the interests of Great Britain or of any of Her Majesty's
possessions in South Africa.
Article V.
The South African Republic will be liable for any balance which
may still remain due of the debts for which it was liable at the date
of Annexation, to wit, the Cape Commercial Bank Loan, the Railway
Loan, and the Orphan Chamber Debt, which debts will be a first
charge upon the revenues of the Republic. The South African
Republic will, moreover, be liable to Her Majesty's Government for
;^250,ooo, which will be a second charge upon the revenues of the
Republic.
Article VI.
The debt due as aforesaid by the South African Republic to Her
Majesty's Government will bear interest at the rate of three and a half
per cent, from the date of the ratification of this Convention, and shall
be repayable by a payment for interest and Sinking Fund of six pounds
and ninepence per ;^ich3 per annum, which will extinguish the debt in
twenty-five years. The said payment of six pounds and ninepence per
;^ioo shall be payable half-yearly, in British currency, at the close of
each half year from the date of such ratification : Provided always that
the South African Republic shall be at liberty at the close of any half
year to pay off the whole or any portion of the outstanding debt.
Interest at the rate of three and a half per cent, on the debt as
standing under the Convention of Pretoria shall as heretofore be paid
to the date of the ratification of this Convention.
Article VII.
All persons who held property in the Transvaal on the 8th day of
August 1 88 1, and still hold the same, will continue to enjoy the rights
of property which they have enjoyed since the I2th April 1877. No
person who has remained loyal to Her Majesty during the late hostili-
ties shall suffer any molestation by reason of his loyalty ; or be liable
to any criminal prosecution or civil action for any part taken in con-
U
3o6 FULL TEXT OF
nexion with such hostilities ; and all such persons will have full liberty
to reside in the country, with enjoyment of all civil rights, and protec-
tion for their persons and property.
Article VIIL
The South African Republic renews the declaration made in the Sand
River Convention, and in the Convention of Pretoria, that no slavery
or apprenticeship partaking of slavery will be tolerated by the Govern-
ment of the said Repubhc.
Article IX.
There will continue to be complete freedom of religion and protection
from molestation for all denominations, provided the same be not incon-
sistent with morality and good order ; and no disability shall attach to
any person in regard to rights of property by reason of the religious
opinions which he holds.
Article X.
The British officer appointed to reside in the South African Republic
will receive every assistance from the Government of the said Republic
in making due provision for the proper care and preservation of the
graves of such of Her Majesty's Forces as have died in the Transvaal ;
and if need be, for the appropriation of land for the purpose.
Article XI.
All grants or titles issued at any time by the Transvaal Government
in respect of land outside the boundary of the South African Republic,
as defined in Article I., shall be considered invalid and of no effect,
except in so far as any such grant or title relates to land that falls
within the boundary of the South African Republic ; and all per-
sons holding any such grant so considered invalid and of no effect
will receive from the Government of the South African Re-
public such compensation, either in land or in money, as the Volks-
raad shall determine. In all cases in which any Native Chiefs or other
authorities outside the said boundaries have received any adequate con-
sideration from the Government of the South African Republic for land
excluded from the Transvaal by the first Article of this Convention, or
where permanent improvements have been made on the land, the High
Commissioner will recover from the native authorities fair compensation
for the loss of the land thus excluded, or of the permanent improvements
thereon.
Article XII.
The independence of the Swazis, within the boundary line of Swazi-
land, as irdicated in the first Article of this Convention, will be fully
recognised.
CONVENTION OF LONDON, 1884 307
Article XIII.
Except in pursuance of any treaty or engagement made as provided
in Article 4 of this Convention, no other or higher duties shall be im-
posed on the importation into the South African Republic of any article
coming from any part of Her Majesty's dominions than are or may be
imposed on the like article coming from any other place or country ;
nor will any prohibition be maintained or imposed on the importation
into the South African Republic of any article coming from any part of
Her Majesty's dominions which shall not equally extend to the like
article coming from any other place or country. And in like manner
the same treatment shall be given to any article coming to Great Britain
from the South African Republic as to the like article coming from any
other place or country.
These provisions do not preclude the consideration of special arrange-
ments as to important duties and commercial relations between the
South African Republic and any of Her Majesty's colonies or pos-
sessions.
Article XIV.
All persons, other than natives, conforming themselves to the laws of
the South African Republic (a) will have full liberty, with their families,
to enter, travel, or reside in any part of the South African Republic ;
{6) they will be entitled to hire or possess houses, manufactories, ware-
houses, shops, and premises ; (c) they may carry on their commerce
either in person or by any agents whom they may think fit to employ ;
{d) they will not be subject, in respect of their persons or property, or
in respect of their commerce or industry, to any taxes, whether general
or local, other than those which are or may be imposed upon citizens of
the said Republic.
Article XV.
All persons, other than natives, who established their domicile in
the Transvaal between the 12th day of April 1877, and the 8th August
1881, and who within 12 months after such last-mentioned date have
had their names registered by the British Resident, shall be exempt
from all compulsory military service whatever.
Article XVI.
Provision shall hereafter be made by a separate instrument for the
mutual extradition of criminals, and also for the surrender of deserters
from Her Majesty's Forces.
Article XVII.
All debts contracted between the 12th April 1877 and the 8th August
1 88 1 will be payable in the same currency in which they may have been
contracted.
3o8 TEXT OF CONVENTION OF LONDON, 1884
Article XVIII.
No gi'ants of land which may have been made, and no transfers or
mortgages which may have been passed, between the 12th April 1877
and the 8th August 1881, will be invalidated by reason merely of their
having been made or passed between such dates.
All transfers to the British Secretary for Native Affairs in trust for
Natives will remain in force, an officer of the South African Republic
taking the place of such Secretary for Native Affairs.
Article XIX.
The Government of the South African Republic will engage faith-
fully to fulfil the assurances given, in accordance with the laws of the
South African Republic, to the natives at the Pretoria Pitso by the
Royal Commission in the presence of the Triumvirate and with their
entire assent, (i) as to the freedom of the natives to buy or otherwise
acquire lands under certain conditions, (2) as to the appointment of a
commission to mark out native locations, (3) as to the access of the
natives to the courts of law, and (4) as to their being allowed to move
freely within the country, or to leave it for any legal purpose, under a
pass system.
Article XX.
This Convention will be ratified by a Volksraad of the South African
Republic within the period of six months after its execution, and in
default of such ratification this Convention shall be null and void.
Signed in duplicate in London this 27th day of February 1884.
(Signed) HERCULES ROBINSON.
S. J. P. KRUGER.
„ S. J. DU TOIT.
„ N. J. SMIT.
[C— 3914.]
TfRNBULL AND SPEARS, PRINTERS, EUINBUKGH.
A CATALOGUE OF BOOKS
AND ANNOUNCEMENTS OF
METHUEN AND COMPANY
PUBLISHERS : LONDON
36 ESSEX STREET
W.C.
CONTENTS
FORTHCOMING BOOKS, .
PAG
2
POETRY, ....
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ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, .
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HISTORY, ....
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BIOGRAPHY, . ...
14
GENERAL LITERATURE,
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SCIENCE, ....
18
PHILOSOPHr, , . „ J
19
THEOLOGY, • . . =
20
LEADERS OF RELIGION,
21
FICTION, ....
22
BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS, .
31
THE PEACOCK LIBRARY,
32
UNIVERSITY EXTENSION SERIES,
32
SOCIAL QUESTIONS OF TO-DAY,
34
CLASSICAL TRANSLATIONS,
35
EDUCATIONAL BOOKS,
36
NOVEMBER 1896
November 1896.
Messrs Methuen's
ANNOUNCEMENTS
oetry
RUDYARD KIPLING
THE SEVEN SEAS. By Rudyard Kipling. Crown Zvo. 6j.
150 copies on hand-made paper. Deniy 8vo. 2ls.
30 copies on Jaoanese paper. Demy 8vo. 425.
The enormous successof ' Barrack Room B Olads' justifies the expectation that this
volume, so long postponed, will have an equal, if not a greater, success.
GEORGE WYNDHAM
SHAKESPEARE'S POEMS. Edited, with an Introduction and
Notes, by George Wyndham, M.P. Crown 8vo. y. 6J.
[English Classics.
W. E. HENLEY
ENGLISH LYRICS. Selected and Edited by W. E. Henley.
Crown Zvo. Buckram. 6s,
Also 15 copies on Japanese paper. Demy 8vo. £2, 2s,
Few announcements will be more welcome to lovers of English verse than the one
that Mr. Henley is bringing together into one book the finest l>Tics in our
language. The volume will be produced with the same care that made ' Lyra
Heroica ' delightful to the hand and eye.
•Q'
POEMS AND BALLADS. By ' Q,' Author of 'Green Bays,
etc. Crown Svo. Bzu/cmm. 3^. 61/.
History, Biography, and Travel
CAPTAIN HINDE
THE FALL OF THE CONGO ARABS. By Sidney L.
IIiNDE. With Portraits and Plans. Demy Svo. 12s. 6d.
This volume deals with the recent Belgian Expedition to the Upper Congo, which
developed into a war between the State forces and the Arab slave-raiders in
Central Africa. Two wliitc men only retiirncd alive from the three years' war —
Commandant Dhanis and the writer of this book, Captain Hinde. During the
greater part ofthe time spent by Captain Hinde in the Congo he was amongst
cannibal races in little-known regions, and, owing to the peculiar circumstances
of his position, was enabled to see a side of native history shown to few Europeans.
Tlie war terminated in the complete defeat of the Arabs, seventy thousand of
whom perished during the struggle.
Messrs. Methuen's Announcements 3
S. BARING GOULD
THE LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. By S. Baring
Gould. With over 450 Illustrations in the Text and 13 Photo^.'
gravure Plates. Large quarto. 365.
This study of the most extraordinary life in history is written rather for the general
reader than for the military student, and while following the main lines of
Napoleon's career, is concerned chiefly with the development of his character and
his personal qualities. Special stress is laid on his early life — the period in which
his mind and character took their definite shape and direction.
The great_ feature of the hook is its wealth of illustration. There are over 456
illustrations, large and small, in the text, and there are also more than a dozen
full page photogravures. Every important incident of Napoleon's career has
its illustration, while there are a large number of portraits of his contemporaries,
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VICTOR HUGO
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ios.6d.eacL Vol. I. 1815-35.
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EDWARD GIBBON
THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE]
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E. Mackay. A SONG OF THE SEA : My Lady of Dreams,
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Gibbon. THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN
EMPIRE. By Edward Gibbon. A New Edition, Edited with
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Flinders Petrie. A HISTORYOF EGYPT, fromthe Earliest
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FUnders Petrie. EGYPTIAN TALES. Edited by W. M.
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Messrs. Methuen's List 13
Flinders Petrie. EGYPTIAN DECORATIVE ART. By
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S. Baring Gould. THE TRAGEDY OF THE C^SARS.
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Perrens. THE HISTORY OF FLORENCE FROM 1434
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and boys."' — The Times.
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Letters," giving the first fruits of the correspondence of Robert Louis Stevenson.
But, high as the tide of expectation has run, no reader can possibly be disappointed
in tlie result.' — St. James's Gazette.
' For the student of English literature these letters indeed are a treasure. They
are more like " Scott's Journal " in kind than any other literary autobiography.'
— National Observer.
F. W. Joyce. THE LIFE OF SIR FREDERICK GORE
OUSELEY. By F. W. Joyce, M.A. With Portraits and Illustra-
tions. Crown 8vo. "js. 6d.
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Musical Ne7us.
' This book has been undertaken in quite the right spirit, and written with sympathy,
insight, and considerable literary skill.' — Titites.
T7. G. Collingwood. THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKiN. By
W. G. Collingwood, M.A., Editor of Mr. Ruskin's Poems. With
numerous Portraits, and 13 Drawings by Mr. Ruskin. Second
Edition. 2 voh. Zvo. 325.
■ No more magnificent volumes h.ive been published for a long time.' — Times.
' It is long since we had a biography with such delights of substance and of form.
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' A noble monument of a noble subject. One of the most beautiful books about one
of the noblest lives of our century." — Glasgow Herald.
Messrs. Methuen's List 15
0. Waldstein. JOHN RUSKIN : a Study. By Charles
Waldstein, M.A., Fellow of King's College, Cambridge. With a
Photogravure Portrait after Professor Herkomer. Post 8vo. ^s.
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W. II. Hutton, M.A., Author of ' William Laud.' With Portraits.
Crown 8vo. ^s.
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M. Kaufmann. CHARLES KINGSLEY. By M. Kaufmann,
M.A. Cro"un 8vo. Buckram, ^s.
A biography of Kingsley, especially dealing with his achievements in social reform.
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Crown Zvo. bs.
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expended on this interesting work.' — Times.
Clark RusseU. THE LIFE OF ADMIRAL LORD COL-
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of the Grosvenor.' With Illustrations by F. Brangwyn. Third
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General Literature
S. Baring Gould. OLD COUNTRY LIFE. By S. Baring
Gould, Author of 'Mehalah,' etc. With Sixty-seven Illustrations
by W. Parkinson, F. D. Bedford, and F. Masey. Large
Crown Svo. los. 6d. Fifth and Cheaper Edition, ds.
' " Old Country Life," as healthy wholesome reading, full of breezy life and move-
ment, full of quaint stories vigorously told, will not be excelled by any book to be
published throughout the year Sound, hearty, and English to the core.' — World.
i6 Messrs. Methuen's List
S. Baring Gould, HISTORIC ODDITIES AND STRANGE
EVENTS. By S. Baring Gould. Third Edition. CrownSvo. 6s.
' A collection of exciting and entertaining chapters. The whole volume is delightful
reading.' — Times.
S. Earing Gould. FREAKS OF FANATICISM. By S. Baring
Gould. Tiiird Edition. Crown "ivo. 6s.
' Mr. Baring Gould has a keen eye for colour and effect, and the subjects he has
chosen give ample scope to his descriptive and analytic faculties. A perfectly
fascinating book.' — Scottish Leader.
S. Baring Gould. A GARLAND OF COUNTRY SONG :
English Folk Songs with their Traditional Melodies. Collected and
.irranged by S. BARING GouLD and H. Fleetwood Sheppard.
Demy /[to. 6s.
S. Baring Gould. SONGS OF THE WEST: Traditional
Ballads and Songs of the West of England, with their Traditional
Melodies. Collected by S. Baring Gould, M. A., and H. Fleet-
wood Sheppard, M. A. Arranged for Voice and Piano. In 4 I'arts
(containing 25 Songs each), Farts /., //., ///., 3^. eac/i. Fart
IV., ^s. In one Vol., French fjiorocco, l^s.
'A rich collection of humour, pathos, grace, and poetic fancy.' — Saturday Review.
S. Baring Gould. YORKSHIRE ODDITIES AND STRANGE
E\'ENTS. Fourth Edition. Crozvn Zvo. 6s.
S. Baring Gould. STRANGE SURVIVALS AND SUPER-
STITIONS. With Illustrations. By S. Baring Gould. Crown
%vo. Second Edition. 6s.
' We have read Mr. Baring Gould's book from beginning to end. It is full of quaint
and various information, and there is not a dull page in it. ' — Notes and Queries.
S. Baring Gould. THE DESERTS OF SOUTHERN
FRANCE. By S. Baring. Gould. With numerous Illustrations
by F. D. Bedford, S. Hutton, etc. 2 vols. De>?iy 8vo. 32.?.
This book is the first serious attempt to describe the great barren tableland that
extends to the south of Limousin in the Department of Aveyron, Lot, etc., a
country of dolomite cliffs, and caiions, and subterranean rivers. The region is
full of prehistoric and historic interest, relics of cave-dwellers, of mediaival
robbers, and of the English domination and the Hundred Years' War.
'His two richly-illustrated volumes are full of matter of interest to the geologist,
the archaeologist, and the student of hiistory and manners.' — Scotsman.
' It deals with its subject in a mauner which rarely fails to arrest attention.' — Times
R. S. Baden-PowelL THE DOWNFALL OF PREMPEH. A
Diary of Life with the Native Levy in A.shanti, 1S95. By Lieut. -Col.
Baden-Powell. With 21 Illustrations, a Map, and a Special
Chapter on the Political and Commercial Position of Ashanti by Sir
George Baden-Powell, K.C.M.G., M.P. De/ny 8vo. 10s. 6d.
' A compact, faithful, most readable record of the campaign." — Daily A'ews.
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' A really interesting book.' — Yorkshire Post.
Messrs. Methuen's List !/
W. E. Gladstone. THE SPEECHES AND PUBLIC AD-
DRESSES OF THE RT. HON. \V. E. GLADSTONE, M.P.
Edited by A. W. Hutton, M.A., and H. J. Cohen, M.A. With
Portraits. Svo. Vols. IX. and X. \2s. 6d. each.
Henley and Whibley. A BOOK OF ENGLISH PROSE.
Collected by W. E. Henley and Charles Whibley. Cr. 2>vo. 6s.
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most admirably printed by Messrs. Constable. A greater treat for those not well
acquainted with pre-Restoration prose could not be imagined.' — Athetiautn,
J. Wells. OXFORD AND OXFORD LIFE. By Members of
the University. Edited by J. Wells, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of
Wadham College. Cro~vn ?>vo. 3^. 6d.
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Dixon, M.A., Professor of English Literature at Mason College.
Crown Svo. zs. 6d.
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' No better estimate of the late Laureate's work has yet been published. His sketch
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Crown Zvo. 2s. 6d.
This book is planned on a method similar to the ' Primer of Tennyson.' It has also
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'An admirable introduction.' — Globe.
L. WMbley. GREEK OLIGARCHIES : THEIR ORGANISA-
TION AND CHARACTER. By L. Whibley, M.A., Fellow
of Pembroke College, Cambridge. Crown Svo. 6s.
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A3
i8 Messrs. Methuen's List
C. H. Pearson. ESSAYS AND CRITICAL REVIEWS. By
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Edited, with a Biographical Sketch, by H. A. Strong, M.A.,
LL.D. With a Portrait. DemyZvo. los. 6d.
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pathies and the remarkable variety of his intellectual interests.' — Giasg;ow Herald.
' Remarkable for careful handling, breadth of view, and thorough knowledge.' — Scots-
man.
' Charming essays. — Spectator.
Ouida. VIEWS AND OPINIONS. By Ouida. CrownZvo.
Second Edition. 6j.
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J. S. Shedlock. THE PIANOFORTE SONATA : Its Origin
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J. Beever. PRACTICAL FLY-FISHING, Founded on
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New Edition, with a Memoir of the Author by W. G. COLLINGWOOD,
M.A. Crown Svo. 35. 6d.
A little book on Fly-Fishing by an old friend of Mr. Ruskin.
Science
Freudenreich. DAIRY BACTERIOLOGY. A Short Manual
for the Use of Students. By Dr. Ed. von Freudenreich.
Translated from the German by J. R. AiNSWORTH Davis, B.A.,
F.C.P. Crown Svo. 2s. 6d.
Chalmers MitcheU. OUTLINES OF BIOLOGY. By P.
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Messrs. Methuen's List 19
Philosophy
L. T. Hobhouse, THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE. By
L. T. Hobhouse, Fellow and Tutor of Corpus College, Oxford.
Demy 8ve>, 21 s.
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' An elaborate and often brilliantly written volume. The treatment is one of great
freshness, and the illustrations are particularly numerous and apt.' — Times.
W. H. Fairbrother. THE PHILOSOPHY OF T. H. GREEN.
By W. H. Fairbrother, M.A., Lecturer at Lincoln College,
Oxford. Crown 8vo. 35. 6d.
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most remarkable speculative thinker whom England has produced Jn the present
century, nothing could be better than Mr. Fairbrother's exposition and criticism.' —
Glasgow Herald.
F. W. BusseU. THE SCHOOL OF PLATO : its Origin and
its Revival under the Roman Empire. By F. W. Bussell, M.A.,
Fellow and Tutor of Brasenose College, Oxford. Demy %vo. Two
vol times. 105. 6d. each. Vol. I.
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F. S. Granger. THE WORSHIP OF THE ROMANS. By
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sity College, Nottingham. Crown 2>vo. 6s,
The author delineates that group of beliefs which stood in close connection with the
Roman religion, and among the subjects treated are Dreams, Nature Worship,
Roman Magic, Divination, Holy Places, Victims, etc. Thus the book is also
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Times.
20 Messrs. Methuen's List
Theology
E. C. S. Gibson. THE XXXIX. ARTICLES OF THE
CHURCH OF ENGLAND. Edited with an Introduction by E.
C. S. Gibson, D.D., Vicar of Leeds, late Principal of Wells
Theological College. Iti Two Vohirnes. Demy %vo. "js. 6d. each,
Vol.1. Artichs'l.-VIII.
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definite, and loyal theology ought to be of gre.at service.' — National Observer.
' So far from repelling the general reader, its orderly arrangement, lucid treatment,
and felicity of diction invite and encourage his attention.' — Yorkshire Post.
R. L. Ottley. THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION.
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Ottley 's merits." — Guardian.
S. R. Driver. SERMONS ON SUBJECTS CONNECTED
WITH THE OLD TESTAMENT. By S. R. Driver, D.D.,
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versity of Oxford. Crown 8vo. 6s.
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the Old Testament." — Guardian.
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CISM : Biographical, Descriptive, and Critical Studies. By T. K.
Cheyne, D.D,, Oriel Professor of the Interpretation of Holy Scrip-
ture at O.xford. Large crown Svo. "js. 6d.
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cal studies from the days of Eichhorn to those of Driver and Robertson Smith.
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C.H.Prior. CAMBRIDGE SERMONS. Edited by C.H. Prior,
M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Pembroke College. Crown Svo. 6s.
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Seven sermons preached before the boys of Bradfield College.
Messrs. Metiiuen's List 21
E. B. Layard. RELIGION IN BOYHOOD. Notes on the
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2Dctotional lBoofe0*
tVt(h Full-page Illustrations. Fcap. %vo. Buckram. 3^. 6^/.
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THE IMITATION OF CHRIST. By Thomas A Kempis.
With an Introduction by Dean Farrar. Illustrated by C. M.
Gere, and printed in black and red. Second Edition.
'Amongst all the innumerable English editions of the "Imitation," there can have
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THE CHRISTIAN YEAR. By John Keble. With an Intro-
duction and Notes by W. Lock, M. A., Sub- Warden of Keble College,
Ireland Professor at Oxford, Author of the ' Life of John Keble.'
Illustrated by R. Anning Bell.
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Introduction. There is an interesting Appendix on the MSS. of the "Christian
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plained in a note. — Guardian.
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Leaders of Religion
Edited by H. C. BEECHING, M.A. With Portraits, crown Zvo.
A series of short biographies of the most prominent leaders ; /'
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The following are ready — KJ\
CARDINAL NEWMAN. By R. H. Hutton.
JOHN WESLEY. By J. H. Overton, M.A.
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CARDINAL MANNING. By A. W. Hutton, M.A.
CHARLES SIMEON. By H. C. G. MOULE, M.A.
JOHN KEBLE. By Walter Lock, M.A.
THOMAS CHALMERS. By Mrs. Oliphant.
LANCELOT ANDREWES. By R. L. Ottley, M.A.
22 Messrs. Methuen's List
augustine of canterbury. by e. l. cutts, d.d.
WILLIAM LAUD. By W. H. HuiTOX, M.A
JOHN KNOX. By F. M'CUNX.
JOHN UO\VE. By R. F. HORTON, D.D.
BISHOP KEN. By F. A. Clarke, M.A.
GEORGE FOX, THE QUAKER. By T. HoDGKiN, D.C.L.
Other volumes will be announced in due course.
Fiction
SIX SHILLING NOVELS
Marie Corelli's Novels
Crouin Hfc. €s. each.
A ROMANCE OF TWO WORLDS. Fourteenth Edition.
VENDETTA. Eleventh Edition.
THELMA. Foicrteenth Edition.
ARDATH. Tenth Edition.
THE SOUL OF LILITH. Ninth Edition.
WO RM WO O D. Eighth Edition.
BARABBAS : A DREAM OF THE WORLD'S TRAGEDY.
Tvjenly-fijth Edition.
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have reconciled us to the daring of the conception, and the conviction is forced on
us tliat even so exalted a subject cannot be made too familiar to us, provided it be
presented in the true spirit of Christian faith. The amplifications of the Scripture
narrative are often conceived with high poetic insight, and this "Dream of the
World's Tragedy " is, despite some trifling incongruities, a lofty and not inade-
quate paraphrase of the supreme climax of the inspired narrative.' — Dublin
Review.
THE SORROWS OF SATAN. Twenty-niiith Edition.
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to win an abiding place within the memory of man. . . , The author has immense
command of language, and a limitless audacity. . . . This interesting and re-
markable romance will live long after much of the ephemeral liter.ature of the day
is forgotten. ... A literary phenomenon . . . novel, and even sublime.' — W. T.
Stead in the Review of Reviews.
Messrs. Methuen's List 23
Anthony Hope's Novels
Crown %vo. 6s. each.
THE GOD IN THE CAR. Sei'enth Edition.
' A very remarkable book, deserving of critical analysis impossible within our limit ;
brilliant, but not superficial ; well considered, but not elaborated ; constructed
with the proverbial art that conceals, but yet allows itself to be enjoyed by readers
to whom fine literary method is a keen pleasure ; true without cynicism, subtle
without affectation, humorous without strain, witty without oflfence, inevitably
sad, with an unmorose simplicity.'— The World.
A CHANGE OF AIR. Fourth Editio7i.
'A graceful, vivacious comedy, true to human nature. The characters are traced
with a masterly hand.' — Tiincs.
A MAN OF MARK. TJiird Edition.
' Of all Mr. Hope's books, " A Man of Mark " is the one which best compares with
" The Prisoner of Zenda." The two romances are unmistakably the work of the
same writer, and he possesses a style of narrative peculiarly seductive, piquant,
comprehensive, and — his own.' — National Observer.
THE CHRONICLES OF COUNT ANTONIO. Third
Edition.
'It is a perfectly enchanting story of love and chivalry, and pure romance. The
outlawed Count is the most constant, desperate, and withal modest and tender of
lovers, a peerless gentleman, an intrepid fighter, a very faithful friend, and a most
magnanimous foe. In short, he is an altogether admirable, lovable, and delight-
ful hero. There is not a word in the volume that can give offence to the most
fastidious taste of man or woman, and there is not, either, a dull paragraph in it.
The book is everywhere instinct with the most exhilarating spirit of adventure,
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history and romance.' — Guardian.
S. Baring Gould's Novels
Crown 2>vo. 6s. each.
•To say that a book is by the author of " Mehalah" is to imply that it contains a
story cast on strong lines, containing dramatic possibilities, vivid and sympathetic
descriptions of Nature, and a wealth of ingenious imagery.' — Speaker.
"That whatever Mr. Baring Gould writes is well worth reading, is a conclusion that
may be very generally accepted. His views of life are fresh and vigorous, his
language pointed and characteristic, the incidents of which he makes use are
striking and original, his characters are life-like, and though somewhat e.xcep-
tional people, are drawn and coloured with artistic force. Add to this that his
descriptions of scenes and scenery are painted with the loving eyes and skilled
hands of a master of his art, that he is always fresh and never dull, and under
such conditions it is no wonder that readers have gained confidence both in his
power of amusing and satisfying them, and that year by year his popularity
widens.' — Court Circular.
ARM I NELL : A Social Romance. Fourth Edition.
URITH : A Story of Dartmoor. Fourth Edition.
' The author is at his best.' — Times.
' He has nearly reached the high water-mark o( " Mehalah." '—Xaiicna! Obse>~c>.
24 Messrs. Metiiuen's List
IN THE ROAR OF THE SEA. Fifth Edition.
'One of the best imagined and most enthralling stories the author has produced.
— Saturday Review.
MRS. CURGENVEN OF CURGENVEN. Fourth Edition.
' A novel of vigorous humour and sustained power.' — Graphic.
' The swing of the narrative is splendid.' — Sussex Daily News.
CHEAP JACK ZITA. Third Edition.
' A powerful dr.ima of human passion.' — Westminster Gazette.
'A story worthy the author.' — National Observer.
THE QUEEN OF LOVE. Fourth Edition.
' The scenery is admirable, and the dramatic incidents are most striking.' — Glasgow
Herald.
' Strong, interesting, and clever.' — Westminster Gazette.
' You cannot put it down until you have finished it.' — Punch.
' Can be heartily recommended to all who care for cleanly, energetic, and interesting
fiction." — Sussex Daily News.
KITTY ALONE. Fourth Edition.
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and, above all, with vivid and enthralling human interest.' — Daily Telegraph.
' Brisk, clever, keen, healthy, humorous, and interesting.' — A^ational Observer.
' Full of quaint and delightful studies of character.' — Bristol Mercury.
NOEMI : A Romance of the Cave-D wallers. Illustrated by
R. Caton Woodville. Third Edition.
' " Noemi " is as excellent a tale of fighting and adventure as one may wish to meet.
All the characters that interfere in this exciting tale are marked with properties
of their own. The narrative also runs clear and sharp as the Loire itself.' —
Pall Mall Gazette.
'Mr. Baring Gould's powerful story is full of the strong lights and shadows and
vivid colouring to which he has accustomed us.' — Standard.
THE BROOM-SQUIRE, Illustrated by Frank Dadd.
Third Edition.
' A straui of tenderness is woven through the web of his tragic tale, and its atmosphere
is sweetened by the nobility and sweetness of the heroine's character.' — Daily Xe7vs.
'A story of exception.ll interest that seems to us to be better than anything he has
written of late.' — Speaker. ' A powerful and striking story.' — Guardian.
'A powerful piece of work." — Black and White.
[Gilbert Parker's Novels
Cro2vn ^vo. 6s. each.
PIERRE AND HIS PEOPLE. Third Edition.
'Stories happily conceived and finely executed. There is strength and genius in Mr.
Parker's style.' — Daily Telegraph.
Messrs Methuen's List 25
MRS. FALCHION. Third Edition,
' A splendid study of character.' — AtheniEutn.
' But little behind anything that has been done by any writer of our time. ' — Pall
Mall Gazette.
'A very striking and admirable novel.' — St. James's Gazette-
THE TRANSLATION OF A SAVAGE.
'The plot is original and one difficult to work out ; but Mr. Parker has done it with
great skill and delicacy. The reader who is not interested in this original, fresh,
and well-told tale must be a dull person indeed.' — Daily Chro7iiclc.
'A strong and successful piece of workmanship. The portrait of Lali, strong,
dignified, and pure, is e.xceptionally well drawn.' — Manchester Guardian.
THE TRAIL OF THE SWORD. Foitrih Editiojt.
'Everybody with a soul for romance will thoroughly enjoy "The Trail of the
Sword." ' — St. James's Gazette.
' A rousing and dramatic tale. A book like this, in which swords fl.ish, great sur-
prises are undertaken, and daring deeds done, in which men and women live and
love in the old straightforward passionate way, is a joy inexpressible to the re-
viewer, brain-weary of the domestic tragedies and psychological puzzles of every-
day fiction ; and we cannot but believe that to the reader it will bring refreshment
as welcome and as keen.' — Daily Chronicle.
WHEN VALMOND CAME TO PONTIAC : The Story of
a Lost Napoleon. Third Edition.
' Here we find romance — real, breathing, living romance, but it runs (lush with our
own times, level with our own feelings. Not here can we complain of lack of
inevitableness or homogeneity. The character of Valmond is drawn unerringly ;
his career, brief as it is, is placed before us as convincingly as history itself. 'Ihe
book must be read, we may say re-read, for any one thoroughly to appreciate
Mr. Parker's delicate touch and innate sympathy with humanity.' — Pall Mall
Gazette.
'The one work of genius which 1895 has as yet produced.' — New Age>
AN ADVENTURER OF THE NORTH: The Last Adven-
tures of ' Pretty Pierre.'
'The present book is full of fine and moving stories of the great North, and it will
add to Mr. Parker's already high reputation.' — Glasgow Herald.
'The new book is very romantic and very entertaining — full of that peculiarly
elegant spirit of adventure which is so characteristic of Mr. Parker, and of that
poetic thrill which has given him warmer, if less numerous, admirers than even
his romantic story-telling gift has done.' — Sketch.
THE SEATS OF THE MIGHTY. Illustrated. Fourth
Edition.
' The best thing he has done ; one of the best things that any one has done lately.' —
St. James's Gazette.
.'Mr. Parker seems to become stronger and easier with every serious novel that he
attempts. . . . In " The Seats of the Mighty " he shows the matured power which
his former novels have led us to expect, and has produced a really fine historical
novel. . . . The great creation of the book is Doltaire. . . . His character is
drawn with quite masterly strokes, for he is a villain who is not altogether a villain,
and who attracts the reader, as he did the other characters, by the extraordinary
brilliance of his gifts, and by the almost unconscious acts of nobility which he
performs. . . . Most sincerely is Mr. Parker to be congratulated on the finest
novel he has yet written.' — Athenceum,
26 Messrs. Methuen's List
'Mr. Parker's latest book places him in the front rank of living novelists. "The
Seats of the Mighty" is a great Look.' — Black and White.
' One of the strongest stories of historical interest and adventure that we have read
for many a day. . . . Through all Mr. Parker moves with an assured step, whilst
in his treatment of his subject there is that happy blending of the poetical with the
prosaic which has characterised all his writings. A notable and successful book.'
— Speaker.
' The story is very finely and dramatically told. ... In none of his books has his
imaginative faculty appeared to such splendid purjiose as here. Captain Moray,
Alixe, Gabord, Vauban — above all, Doltaire — and, indeed, every person who takes
part in the action of the story are clearly conceived and finely drawn and indivi-
dualised.— Scotsman.
' An admirable romance. The glory of a romance is its plot, and this plot is crowded
with fine sensations, which have no rest until the fall of the famous old city and
the final restitution of love.' — Pall Mall Gazette.
Conan Doyle. ROUND THE RED LAMP. By A. Conan
Doyle, Author of ' The NVhite Company,' ' The Adventures of
Sherlock Holmes,' etc. Fourth Edition. Crown Svo. 6s.
' The book is, indeed, composed of leaves from life, and is far and away the best view
that has been vouchsafed us behind the scenes of the consulting-room. It is very
superior to " The Diary of a late Physician." '• — Illustrated London N'ews.
Stanley Weyman. UNDER THE RED ROBE. By Stanley
Weyman, Author of ' A Gentleman of France.' With Twelve Illus-
trations by R. Caton Woodville. Eighth Edition. Crown ?>vo. 6s. "
' A book of which we have read every word for the sheer pleasure of reading, and
which we put down with a pang that we cannot forget it all and start again.' —
IFesimlnster Gazette.
' Every one who reads books at all must read this thrilling romance, from the first
page of which to the last the breathless reader is haled along. An inspiration of
" manliness and courage." — Daily Chronicle.
' A delightful tale of chivalry and adventure, vivid and dramatic, with a wholesome
modesty and reverence for the highest.' — Globe.
Mrs. Clifford. A FLASH OF SUMMER. By Mrs. W. K
Clifford, Author of / Aunt Anne,' etc. Second Edition. Crown
'tivo. 6s,
' The story is a very sad and a very beautiful one, exquisitely told, and enriched with
many subtle touches of wise and tender insight. It will, undoubtedly, add to its
author's reputation — already high — in the ranks of novelists.' — Speaker.
' We must congratulate Mrs. Clifford upon a very successful and interesting story,
told throughout with finish and a delicate sense of proportion, qualities which,
indeed, have always distinguished the best work of this very able writer.' —
Mancltester Guardian.
Emily Lawless. HURRISH. By the Honble. Emily Law-
less, Author of ' Maelcho,' etc. Fifth Edition. Crown ?)V0. 6s.
A reissue of Miss Lawless' most popular novel, uniform with ' Maelcho.'
Emily Lawless. MAELCHO : a Sixteenth Century Romance.
]]y the llonljle. Emii.y LAWLESS, Author of ' Crania,' etc. Second
Edition. Crown Svo. 6s.
' A really great book.' — Spectator.
'There is no keener pleasure in life than the recognition of genius. Good work is
commoner than it used to be, but the best is as rare as ever. All the more
gladly, therefore, do we welcome in " Maelcho " a piece of work of the first order,
which we do not hesitate to describe as one of the most remarkable literary
achievements of this generation. Miss Lawless is possessed of the very essence
of historical genius.' — Manchester Guardian.
Messrs. Methuen's List 37
J. H. Findlater. THE GREEN GRAVES OF BALGOWRIE.
By Jane H. FiNDLATER. Third Edition. Crown %vo. 6s.
'A powerful and vivid story.' — Standard.
' A beautiful story, sad and strange as truth itself.' — Vanity Fair
' A work of remarkable interest and originality.' — National Observer.
' A really original novel.' — Journal of Kdiicai ion.
'A very charming and pathetic tale.'- — Fall Mall Gazette.
' A singularly original, clever, and beautiful story.' — Guardian.
' " The Green Graves of Balgowrie " reveals to us a new Scotch writer of undoubted
faculty and reserve force.' — Spectator.
' An exquisite idyll, delicate, afi'ecting, and beautiful.' — Black and White.
' Permeated with high and noble purpose. It is one of the most wholesome stories
we have met with, and cannot fail to leave a deep and lasting impression.' —
JVf7tisa^ent.
E. F. Benson. DODO : A DETAIL OF THE DAY. By E. F.
Benson. Sixteenth Edition, Crown 8vo, 6s.
' A delightfully witty sketch of society.' — Spectator.
' A perpetual feast of epigram and paradox.' — Speaker.
' By a writer of quite e,\ceptional ability.' — Atheneeutn.
' Brilliantly written.' — World.
E. F. Benson. THE RUBICON. By E. F. Benson, Author of
' Dodo.' Fifth Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
' Well written, stimulating, unconventional, and, in a word, characteristic' —
liiritmi^hant Fast.
' An exceptional achievement ; a notable advance on his previous work.' — National
Obse}-ver.
M. M, Dowie. GALLIA. By M^nie Muriel Dowie, Author
of 'A Girl in the Carpathians.' Third Edition. Crown Svo. 6s.
' The style is generally admirable, the dialogue not seldom brilliant, the situations
surprising in their freshness and originality, while the subsidi.iry as well as the
principal characters live and move, and the story itself is readable from title-page
to colophon.' — Saturday Rez'ie%v.
' A very notable book ; a very sympathetically, at times delightfully written book.
— Daily Graphic.
Ilrs. Oliphant. SIR ROBERT'S FORTUNE. By Mrs.
Oliphant. Crown Svo. 6s.
' Full of her own peculiar charm of style and simple, subtle character-painting comes
her new gift, the delightful story before us. The scene mostly lies in the moors,
and at tlie touch of the authoress a Scotch moor becomes a living thing, strong,
tender, beautiful, and changeful.' — J'all Jl/all Gazette.
Mrs. Oliphant. THE TWO MARYS. By Mrs. Oliphant.
Second Edition. Crown Svo. 6s.
W. E. Norris. MATTHEW AUSTIN. By \\\ E. Norris, Author
of ' Mademoiselle de Mersac,' etc. Eotirth Edition. Crown %-i'o. 6s.
' "Matthew Austin " may safely be pronounced one of the most intellectually satis-
factory and morally bracing novels of the current year.' — Daily Telegraph.
W. E. Norris, HIS GRACE. By W. E. Norris. Third
Edition. Crown Svo. 6.s.
' Mr. Norris has drawn a really fine character in the Duke or Hurstbourne, at once
unconventional and very true to the conventionjriities of life, weak and strong in
a breath, capable of inane follies and heroic decisions, yet not so definitely por-
trayed as to relieve a reader of the necessity of study.' — Atkenaum. ■
28 Messrs. Methuen's List
W. E. Norris. THE DESPOTIC LADY AND OTHERS.
By W. E. Norris. Croivn Svo. 6s.
'A budget of good fiction of which no one will tire.' — Scotsman.
'An extremely entertaining volume — the sprightliest of holiday companions.' —
Daily Telegraph
H. G. Wells. THE STOLEN BACILLUS, and other Stories.
By H. G. Wells, Author of 'The Time Machine.' Croivn
8vo. 6s.
' The ordinary reader of fiction may be glad to know that these stories are eminently
readable from one cover to the other, but they are more than that ; they are the
impressions of a ver>' striking imagination, which, it would seem, has a great deal
within its reach.' — Saturday Revie'v.
Arthur Morrison. TALES OF MEAN STREETS. By Arthur
Morrison. Fourth Edition. Ci-owti %vo. 6s.
' Told with consummate art and extraordinary detail. He tells a plain, unvarnished
tale, and the very truth of it makes for beauty. In the true humanity of the book
lies its justification, the permanence of its interest, and its indubitable triumph.'—
A thenisuin.
'A great book. The author's method is amazingly effective, and produces a thrilling
sense of reality. The writer lays upon us a master hand. The book is simply
appalling and irresistible in its interest. It is humorous also ; without humour
it would not make the mark it is certain to make.' — IVorlii.
J. Maclaren Cobban. THE KING OF ANDAMAN : A
Saviour of Society. By J. Maclaren Cobban. Croivn %vo. 6s •
' An unquestionably interesting book. It would not surprise us if it turns out to be
the most interesting novel of the season, for it contains one character, at least,
who has in him the root of immortality, and the book itself is ever exhaling the
sweet savour of the unexpected. . . . Plot is forgotten and incident fades, ami
only the really human endures, and throughout this book there stands out in bold
and beautiful relief its high-souled and chivalric protagonist, James the Master
of Hutcheon, the King of Andaman himself.' — Pall Mall Gazette.
'A most original and refreshing story. James Hutcheon is a personage whom it Is
good to know and impossible to forget. He is beautiful within and without,
whichever way we take him.' — Spectator.
' "The King of Andaman," is a book which does credit not less to the heart than
the head of its author.' — Athenceuiii.
' The fact that Her Majesty the (^ueen has been pleased to gracefully express to the
author of " The King of Andaman" her interest in his work will doubtless find
fur it many readers.' — Vanity Fair.
H. Morrah. A SERIOUS COMEDY. By Herbert Morrah.
Croivn %vo. 6s.
' There are many delightful places in this volume, which is well worthy of its title.
The theme has seldom been presented with more fieshness or more force.' —
Scots7na>i.
L. B. Walford. SUCCESSORS TO THE TITLE. By Mrs.
Walford, Author of 'Mr. Smith,' etc. Second Edition. Crown
Svo. 6s,
' The story is fresh and healthy from beginning to finish ; and our liking for the two
simple people who are the successors to the title mounts steadily, and ends almost
in respect. — Scotsman.
'.The book is quite worthy to ba ranked with many clever predecessors. It is ex-
cellent reading." — Glasgow Herald.
Messrs. Methuen's List 29
T. L. Paton. A HOME IN INVERESK. By T. L. Paton.
Croivn 8vo, 6s,
'A distinctly fresh and fascinating novel.' — Jlfouirose Standard.
'A book which bears marks of considerable promise.' — Scotsman.
'A pleasant and well-written story.' — Daily Chronicle.
John Davidson. MISS ARMSTRONG'S AND OTHER CIR-
CUMSTANCES. By John Davidson. Crow7i ?,vo. 6s.
' Throughout the volume there is a strong vein of originality, a strength in the
handling, and a knowledge of human nature that are worthy of the highest praise.'
— Scotsman.
J. B. Burton. IN THE DAY OF ADVERSITY. By J.
Bloundelle Burton. Croiun %vo. 6s.
' Unusually interesting and full of highly dramatic situations.' — Guardian.
' h. well-written story, drawn from that inexhaustible mine, the time of Louis XIV.
—Pall hiall Gazette.
H. Johnston. DR. CONGALTON'S LEGACY. By Henry
Johnston. Croivn Zvo. 6s.
' The story is redolent of humour, pathos, and tenderness, while it is not without a
touch of tragedy.' — Scotsman.
A worthy and permanent contribution to Scottish creative literature.' — Glasgow
Herald.
Julian Corbett. A BUSINESS IN GREAT WATERS. By
Julian Corbett. Croivn 8vo. 6s.
' In this stirring story Mr. Julian Corbett has done excellent work, welcome alike
for its distinctly literary flavour, and for the wholesome tone which pervades it.
Mr. Corbett writes with immense spirit, and the book is a thoroughly enjoyable
one in all respects. The salt of the ocean is in it, and the right heroic ring re-
sounds through its gallant adventures.' — Speaker.
C. Phillips Woolley. THE QUEENSBERRY CUP. A Talc
of Adventure. By Clive Phillips Woolley, Author of ' Snap,'
Editor of ' Big Game Shooting.' Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 6s.
' A book which will delight boys : a book which upholds the healthy schoolboy code
of morality.' — Scotsman.
' A brilliant book. Dick St. Clair, of Caithness, is an almost ideal character — a com-
bination of the mediaeval knight and the modern pugilist.' — Admiralty and Horse-
guards Gazette.
Robert Barr. IN THE MIDST OF ALARMS. By Robert
Barr. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
' A book which has abundantly satisfied us by its capital humour.' — Daily Chronicle.
'Mr. Barr has achieved a triumph whereof he has every reason to be proud.' — Pall
Mall Gazette.
L. Daintrey. THE KING OF ALBERIA. A Romance of
the Ballvans. By Laura Daintrey. Crown 8vo. 6s.
' Miss Daintrey seems to have an intimate acquaintance with the people and politics
of the Balkan countries in which the scene of her lively and picturescjue romance
is laid. On almost every page we find clever touches of local colour which dif-
ferentiate her book unmistakably from the ordinary novel of commerce. The
story is briskly told, and well conQe.i\e.d.'— Glasgow Herald.
so Messrs. Methuen's List
Mrs. Pinsent. CHILDREN OF THIS WORLD. By Ellen
F. Pinsent, Autlior of 'Jenny's Case.' Crown Zvo. 6s.
' Mrs. Pinsent's new novel has plenty of vigour, variety, and good writing. There
are certainty of purpose, strength of touch, and clearness of vision.' — Atkeneeutn.
Clark RusseU. MY DANISH SWEETHEART. By W.
Clark Russell, Author of ' The Wreck of the Grosvenor,' etc.
lUiist7-atcd. Fourth Edition, Croivn %vo. 6s.
G. Manville Fenn. AN ELECTRIC SPARK. ByG. Manville
Fenn. Second Edition. Crown 8z'o. 6s,
A simple and wholesome storj'.' — Manchester Guardiati.
R. Pryce. TIME AND THE WOMAN. By Richard Pryce,
Author of ' Miss Maxwell's Affections,' ' The Quiet Mrs. Fleming,'
etc. Second Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.
' JMr. Pryce's work recalls the style of Octave Feuillet, by its clearness, conciseness,
its literary reserve.' — Aittaiauiii.
Mrs. Watson. THIS MAN'S DOMINION. By the Author
of ' A High Little World.' Second Edition. Cro2vn8vo. 6s.
Marriott Watson. DIOGENES OF LONDON. By H. B.
Marriott Watson. Crown Svo. Buckram. 6s.
' By all those who delight in the uses of words, who rate the exercise of prose above
the exercise of verse, who rejoice in all proofs of its delicacy and its strength, who
believe that English prose is chief among the moulds of thought, by these
Mr. Marriott Watson's book will be welcomed.' — National Observer.
M. Gilclirist. THE STONE DRAGON. By Murray Gil-
christ. Crowft Svo. Buckrajn. 6s.
' The author's faults are atoned for by certain positive and admirable merits. The
romances have not their counterpart in modern literature, and to read them is a
unique experience.' — National Observer.
E. Dickinson. A VICAR'S WIFE. By Evelyn Dickinson.
Crown Zvo. 6s.
E. M. Gray. ELSA. By E. M'Queen Gray. Crown Zvo. 6s.
THREE-AND-SIXPENNY NOVELS
Croivn Svo.
DERRICK VAUGHAN, NOVELIST. By Edna Lyall.
MARGERY OF QUETHER. By S. Baring Gould.
JACQUETTA. By S. Baring Gould.
SUBJECT TO VANITY. By Margaret Benson.
THE MOVING FINGER. By Mary Gaunt.
JACO TRELOAR. By J. H. Pearce.
3/6
Messrs. Methuen's List 31
aut diabolus aut' nihil. by x. l.
THE COMING OF CUCULAIN. A Romance of the Heroic
Age of Ireland. By Standish O'Grady. Illustrated.
THE GODS GIVE MY DONKEY WINGS. By Angus
Evan Abbott.
THE STAR GAZERS. By G. Manville Fenn.
THE POISON OF ASPS. By R. Orton Prowse.
THE QUIET MRS. FLEMING. By R. Pryce.
THE PLAN OF CAMPAIGN. By F. Mabel Robinson.
DISENCHANTMENT. By F. Mabel Robinson.
MR. BUTLER'S WARD. By F. Mabel Robinson.
A LOST ILLUSION. By Leslie Keith.
A REVEREND GENTLEMAN. By J. M. Cobban.
A DEPLORABLE AFFAIR. By W. E. Norris.
A CAVALIER'S LADYE. By Mrs. Dicker.
2/6
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2. ELI'S CHILDREN. By G. Manville Fenn.
3. A DOUBLE KNOT. By G. Manville Fenn.
4. DISARMED By M. Betham Edwards.
5. A MARRIAGE AT SEA. By W. Clark Russell.
6. IN TENT AND BUNGALOW. By the Author of ' Indian
Idylls.'
7. MY STEWARDSHIP. By E. M'Queen Gray.
8. JACK'S FATHER. By W. E. NORRIS.
9. JIM B.
Lynn Linton. THE TRUE HISTORY OF JOSHUA DAVID-
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1. THE ICELANDER'S SWORD. By S. Baring Gould.
2. TWO LITTLE CHILDREN AND CHING. By Edith
E. Cuthell,
32 Messrs. Methuen's List
3. TODDLEBEN'S HERO. By M. M. Blake.
4. ONLY A GUARD ROOM DOG. By Edith E. Cuthell.
5. THE DOCTOR OF THE JULIET. By Harry Colling-
WOOD.
6. MASTER ROCKAFELLAR'S VOYAGE. By W. Clark
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7. SYD BELTON : Or, The Boy who would not go to Sea.
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3. THE SECRET OF MADAME DE MONLUC. By the
Author of ' Mdlc Mori.'
4. DUMPS. By Mrs. Parr, Author of Adam and Eve.'
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University Extension Series
A series of books on historical, literary, and scientific subjects, suitable
for extension students and home-reading circles. Each volume is com-
plete in itself, and the subjects are treated by competent writers in a
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Edited by J. E. SYMES, M.A.,
Principal of University College, Nottingham.
Crown 8vo. Price {with some exceptions) 2s. 6d.
The following volumes are ready : —
THE INDUSTRIAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. By H. de
B. (JiBRiNS, M.A., late Scholar of Wadham College, Oxon., Cobden
Prizeman. Fourth Edition. With Maps and Plans, 3^.
'A compact and clcir story of our ndustrial development. A study of this concise
but luminous book cannot fail to give the reader a clear insight into the principal
phenomena of our industrial history. The editor and publishers are to be congrat-
ulated on this first volume of their venture, and we shall look with expectant
interest for the succeeding volumes of the series.' — University Extettiian JournaL
Messrs. Methuen's List 33
a history of english political economy. by
L. L. Price, M.A., Fellow of Oriel College, Oxon. Second Edition.
PROBLEMS OF POVERTY : An Inquiry into the Industrial
Conditions of the Poor. By J. A. Hobson, M.A. Third Edition.
VICTORIAN POETS. By A. Sharp.
THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. By J. E. Symes, M.A.
PSYCHOLOGY. By F. S. Granger, M.A., Lecturer in Philo-
sophy at University College, Nottingham.
THE EVOLUTION OF PLANT LIFE : Lower Forms. By
G. Massee, Kew Gardens. With Illustrations.
AIR AND WATER. Professor V. B. Lewes, M.A. Illustrated.
THE CHEMISTRY OF LIFE AND HEALTH. By C. W.
KiMMiNS, M.A. Camb. Illustrated.
THE MECHANICS OF DAILY LIFE. By V. P. Sells, M.A.
Illustrated.
ENGLISH SOCIAL REFORMERS. H. DE B. Gibbins, M.A.
ENGLISH TRADE AND FINANCE IN THE SEVEN-
TEENTH CENTURY. By W. A. S. Hewins, B.A.
THE CHEMISTRY OF FIRE. The Elementary Principles of
Chemistry, By M. M. Pattison Muir, ]\LA. Illustrated.
A TEXT-BOOK OF AGRICULTURAL BOTANY. By M. C.
Potter, M.A., F.L.S. Illustrated, y. 6d.
THE VAULT OF HEAVEN. A Popular Introduction to
Astronomy. By R. A. Gregory. With numerous Illustrations.
METEOROLOGY. The Elements of Weather and Climate.
By H, N. Dickson, F.R.S.E., F.R. Met. Soc. Illustrated.
A MANUAL OF ELECTRICAL SCIENCE. By George
J. BURCH, M.A. With numerous Illustrations, ^s,
THE EARTH. An Introduction to Physiography. By Evan
Small, M.A. Illustrated.
INSECT LIFE. By F. W. Theobald, M.A. Illustrated.
ENGLISH POETRY FROM BLAKE TO BROWNING. By
W. M. Dixon, M.A.
ENGLISH LOCAL GOVERNMENT. By E. Jenks, M.A.,
Professor of Law at University College, Liverpool.
34 Messrs. Metiiuen's List
Social Questions of To-day-
Edited by II. DE B. GIBBINS, M.A.
Crown ^vo. 2s. 6d, I /C.
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The following Vohvnes of the Series are ready : —
TRADE UNIONISM— NEW AND OLD. By G. HowELL,
Author of * The Conflicts of Capital and Labour.' Second Edition.
THE CO-OPERATIVE MOVEMENT TO-DAY. By G. J.
HoLYOAKE, Author of ' The History of Co-operation.' Second
Edition.
MUTUAL THRIFT. By Rev. J. Frome Wilkinson, M.A.,
Author of ' The J"riendly Society Movement.'
PROBLEMS OF POVERTY : An Inquiry into the Industrial
Conditions of the Poor. By J. A. IIobson, M.A. Third Edition.
THE COMMERCE OF NATIONS. By C. F. Bastable,
M.A., Professor of Economics at Trinity College, Dublin.
THE ALIEN INVASION. By W. H. Wilkins, B.A., Secretary
to the Society for Preventing the Immigration of Destitute Aliens.
THE RURAL EXODUS. By P. Anderson Graham.
LAND NATIONALIZATION. By Harold Cox, B.A.
A SHORTER WORKING DAY. By H. DE B. Gibbins
and R. A. IIadfield, of the Ilecla Works, Sheffield.
BACK TO THE LAND : An Inquiry into the Cure for Rural
Depopulation. By II. E. Mooke.
TRUSTS, POOLS AND CORNERS : As affecting Commerce
and Industry. By J. Stephen Jeans, M.R.I., F.S.S.
THE FACTORY SYSTEM. By R. Cooke Taylor.
THE STATE AND ITS CHILDREN. By Gertrude
Tuckwell.
WOMEN'S WORK. By Lady Dilke, Miss Bulley, and
Miss Whitley.
Messrs. Metiiuen's List 35
MUNICIPALITIES AT WORK. The Municipal Policy of
Six Great Towns, and its Influence on their Social Welfare. By
Frederick Dolman.
SOCIALISM AND MODERN THOUGHT. By M. Kauf-
MANN.
THE HOUSING OF THE WORKING CLASSES. By R.
F. BOWMAKER.
MODERN CIVILISATION IN SOME OF ITS ECONOMIC
ASPECTS. By W. Cunningham, D.D., Fellow of Trinity College,
Cambridge.
Classical Translations
Edited by H. F. FOX, M.A., Fellow and Tutor of Brasenose
College, Oxford.
Messrs, Methuen are issuing a New Series of Translations from the
Greek and Latin Classics. They have enUsted the services of some
of the best Oxford and Cambridge Scholars, and it is their intention that
the Series shall be distinguished by literary excellence as well as by
scholarly accuracy.
^SCHYLUS — Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides. Trans-
lated by Lewis Campbell, LL.D., late Professor of Greek at St.
Andrews. 55.
CICERO— De Oratore I. Translated by E. N. P. Moor, M.A.,
Assistant Master at Clifton. 35'. dd,
CICERO— Select Orations (Pro Milone, Pro Murena, Philippic ll..
In Catilinam). Translated by H. E. D. Blakiston, M.A., Fellow
and Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford, ^s,
CICERO— De Natura Deorum. Translated by F. Brooks,
M. A., late Scholar of Balliol College, Oxford. 3^. 6d.
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